The Biden Administration is marking the celebration of Hanukkah this year by publicly condemning a “disturbing rise” in antisemitism in the U.S.
On Sunday night, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is Jewish, spoke at the lighting of the National Menorah in Washington DC.
“Together, we must stand up against the disturbing rise in antisemitism,” he said. “And together, we must stand up against bigotry in any of its forms. Our democracy depends on it.”
President Biden was set to host a Hanukkah celebration Monday evening, during which he was also expected to make remarks condemning growing antisemitism across the country.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff recently hosted a roundtable of Jewish leaders and White House officials to discuss ways to combat hate and the rise in antisemitism across the U.S.
That event came just days after former President Trump had hosted dinner at his Florida country club residence, Mar-a-Lago, with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye “Ye” West, both of whom have spouted antisemitic rhetoric, including praise for Hitler.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, tracked 2,717 antisemitic instances of assault, harassment and vandalism last year, a 34% increase over the previous year and the highest number since the organization began keeping track in 1979.
Among those invited to Monday’s White House event are a Holocaust survivor and retired public school teacher, a rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Michele Taylor, who is U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council and the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
