Biden condemns ‘vile’ rise in antisemitism at White House Hanukkah event

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

President Joe Biden on Monday acknowledged fears that Jewish Americans may be harbouring this year due to a surge in antisemitism both in the US and abroad during a White House reception marking the start of the Hanukkah holiday.

Speaking in the executive mansion’s grand foyer, Mr Biden told a group of invited attendees: “This year’s Hanukkah arrives in the midst of rising and emboldened of antisemitism – at home and, quite frankly, around the world”.

“I recognise your fear, your hurt, your worry that this vile and venom is becoming too normal,” he added.

The president also said he wanted to make clear that “silence is complicity” when it comes to antisemitism.

“We must not remain silent. And I made no bones about it from the very beginning: I will not be silent. America will not be silent,” he said. “Today we must all say clearly and forcefully: Antisemitism and all forms of hate and violence in this country have no safe harbor in America — evil will not win, hate will not prevail”.

Mr Biden’s remarks were delivered on the same day the White House unveiled a menorah that will become the first permanent Jewish artifact in the White House’s collection, and they came just weeks after his 2020 election opponent and potential 2024 reelection opponent, former president Donald Trump, hosted rapper and antisemite Kanye West and white nationalist Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Palm Beach, Florida club for dinner.

At the time, Mr Biden called deceased Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler a “demonic figure” and pointed out that the Holocaust did, in fact, happen.

On Twitter, he wrote that “instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides”.