Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day And The Importance Of Confronting Rising Antisemitism
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and reaffirm the need to combat rising antisemitism in America. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We commemorate it because it is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the few Jews who survived and were imprisoned at Auschwitz.
Never again can we allow antisemitism – or any other form of hatred – to fester and grow the way we saw during the Nazi regime.
We must always tell the truth about what happened to the Jewish people 80 years ago. We can never allow history to be forgotten, shunned, or deliberately erased.
It saddens me that, this year, Holocaust Remembrance Day comes at a time of rising hatred against Jewish people, especially here in America after October 7th.
Just yesterday, I visited a popular Israeli restaurant a few blocks from my home in Brooklyn. It’s called Miriam. The night before, the restaurant and its owners were the victims of a despicable act of vandalism. Their windows were smeared with red paint and defiled with messages of hate. The attack happened simply because the owners are Jewish.
Just because the owners are Jewish. That is antisemitism, pure and simple, and we must condemn it together and forcefully.
As ugly as this incident was, I was inspired by how the owners and the community responded. They chose to leave the vandalism up for a day, so that people and the media could see the dangers of letting antisemitism gain strength. Many in the area stopped by for lunch, offered to help with the cleanup, or just shared a message of support.
I went to visit the restaurant in the evening, with an order to go. That is New York at its best, when neighbors look after each other in the face of hate.
We must never, never fail to condemn antisemitism whenever or wherever it rears its ugly head. It comes now in many new dimensions. And some people seem impervious to things that seem to many Jewish people outright antisemitic. We have to be so vigilant. That’s the best way to honor what Holocaust Remembrance Day represents.
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