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Prejudice against or hatred of Jews - known as antisemitism - has plagued the world for more than 2,000 years. The Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945, is history's most extreme example of antisemitism. Yet even in the aftermath of the Holocaust, antisemitism remains a continuing threat.
Today, there are signs of increasing antisemitism across Europe and the Islamic world, including hate speech, violence targeting Jews and Jewish institutions, and denial of the Holocaust. Militant Islamic groups with political power use language suggestive of genocide regarding the State of Israel. The president of Iran recently declared the Holocaust a "myth" and called Israel "a disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map." The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas pledges in its founding covenant to "obliterate" Israel.
Many moral failures led to the Holocaust. In the aftermath of those failures, we must remain alert to the continuing threat of antisemitism and to the ultimate consequences of unchecked hatred.
