World Jewish News

Israeli President Rivlin expresses support and solidarity with American Jewish community

In the aftermath of the events in Charlotesville where neo-Nazis groups demonstrated, shouting anti-Semitic slogans and waving Nazi flags and symbols, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin conveyed his support and solidarity to the American Jewish community, in a letter sent to the leader of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The letter was sent to the organization’s Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.

The President wrote, "At this difficult time I want to express my support and solidarity, and that of all the Israeli people, with you and your communities, and ask that you kindly convey this message on my behalf to the Jewish communities across the US."

"The very idea that in our time we would see a Nazi flag - perhaps the most vicious symbol of anti-Semitism - paraded in the streets of the world's greatest democracy, and Israel's most cherished and greatest ally is almost beyond belief,’’ Rivlin said.

He added, "We have seen manifestations of anti-Semitism again and again arise across the world; in Europe and the Middle East. In the face of such evil, we stand now as we did then. With faith. With faith in humanity, with faith in democracy, and with faith in justice. I know that the great nation of the United States of America and its leaders will know how to face this difficult challenge, and prove to the world the robustness and strength of democracy and freedom."

The Israeli president concluded, "As we say Chazak, Chazak, ve’Nitchazek. Be strong, be strong, and we will be strong."

The Republican Jewish Coalition has called on President Donald Trump to provide “greater moral clarity in rejecting racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism.”

“The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are dangerous anti-Semites,” the group’s national chairman, Norm Coleman, and executive director, Matt Brooks, wrote in a statement. “As representatives of an organization … with many members who experienced firsthand the inhumanity of the Nazi Holocaust, we state unequivocally our rejection of these hatemongers — you can expect nothing less from the Republican Jewish Coalition.”

President Trump said that he believed that both the protesters, whose ranks included members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, and leftist counter-protesters shared blame for the violence in Charlottesville.

“There are no good Nazis and no good members of the Klan,” Coleman and Brooks wrote.

EJP