28 April 2019
Yad Vashem is appalled and saddened at the shooting attack at the synagogue in Poway, California yesterday. We express our deepest condolences to the family of Lori Gilbert Kaye z"l, and stand united with all the victims of this shooting and the entire San Diego Jewish community.
Yad Vashem strongly condemns the actions of the antisemitic white supremacist at this house of worship. As we approach Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is dedicated to commemorating the memory of the six million men, women and children murdered for being Jewish, we shall gravely consider the dangers of unchecked antisemitism.
We are also troubled by various forms of incitement featured in the media – print, digital and social. The world must act to combat such forms of hate speech by leaders and laypersons alike. Yad Vashem has been creating educational tools to counter this alarming phenomenon.
"In recent months, we have witnessed a distressing resurgence in incidents of antisemitic attacks," says Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. "On every continent, violence against Jews, merely because they are Jews, occurs. The time has come for world leaders to speak out and condemn antisemitism in all its expressions, and immediately implement legal, moral and educational measures, both to protect the lives of their Jewish citizens, and also to fight against the outbreak of antisemitism that we have witnessed lately. In our post-Holocaust global society there is no room for antisemitism or any other kind of racism or xenophobia."
