Obama condemned antisemitism in a message marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – US President Barack Obama condemned antisemitism in a message on Thursday to mark Israel’s Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) as well as the international commemorations of the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

“It is incumbent upon us to make real those timeless words, ‘Never forget. Never again.’ Yet, even as we recognize that mankind is capable of unspeakable acts of evil, we also draw strength from the survivors, the liberators, and the righteous among nations who represented humanity at its best,” Obama said in a statement.

“With their example to guide us, together we must firmly and forcefully condemn the antisemitism that is still far too common today. Together we must stand against bigotry and hatred in all their forms. And together, we can leave our children a world that is more just, more free, and more secure for all humankind,” he said.

A report released Wednesday by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University showed a 38 percent rise in violent antisemitic attacks in Europe from 2013 to 2014.