NEW YORK – World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder has praised US President Donald Trump’s “poignant and respectful” tribute to the six million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, and underscored the critical nature of Holocaust education and remembrance.
“I was very moved by the respectful tributes given by President Donald Trump today and First Lady Melania Trump yesterday honoring the memory of the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust,” Lauder said.
In his message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump declared: “We take this opportunity to recall the Nazis’ systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people.” President Trump also paid tribute to the survivors of the Holocaust, adding that, “Although they are aging and their numbers are slowly dwindling, their stories remain with us, giving us the strength to combat intolerance, including anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry and discrimination.”
Lauder said: “I am grateful to President Trump for reminding the American people and the world yet again that the memory of the Holocaust is a critical part of our national consciousness, and to First Lady Melania’s encouragement to demonstrate our ‘shared humanity’ and commitment to ensuring that these atrocities are never repeated.”
“The World Jewish Congress finds deep value in the fact that across the world each year, people of all different faiths and nationalities stand together as one to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to ensure that the horrors of the Nazi attempt to wipe out European Jewry is never forgotten,” Lauder added. “Over the last month, the World Jewish Congress has reached out to millions in a global campaign to declare that ‘We Remember,’ a message shared by the First Lady in her tribute yesterday. It is indeed, as President Trump so poignantly said, our responsibility to ‘join together across our nations and with people of goodwill around the world to eliminate prejudice and promote more just societies’.”