International Holocaust Remembrance Day is meant to stop time. To force the world to confront the industrial murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators.
We remember these atrocities because memory is supposed to protect the future and because education is meant to prevent repetition. But honoring the victims demands more than ritual; it demands responsibility.
That is why remembrance ceremonies take place, year after year, in institutions like the United Nations. This body was created on the foundations of the Holocaust itself, created on the promise that the world would not stay silent again while hatred escalated into annihilation.
But remembrance without action is hollow.
Because while solemn words are uttered, Jewish people are being attacked worldwide for being Jewish. Antisemitism is spreading with alarming speed, and the institutions built to confront hatred are too often enabling the pernicious narratives that sustain it.
History teaches a hard truth: genocide does not begin with mass killings. Long before that, it begins with gradual dehumanization. With language that strips a people of legitimacy. With lies repeated until they sound like fact and with moral confusion masquerading as neutrality.
From words to violence: the escalation of antisemitism
In the past year alone, synagogues have been firebombed. Jewish festivals have become hunting grounds, with the Bondi Beach massacre on Hanukkah and the Manchester terror attack on Yom Kippur.
Children’s parks in Brooklyn have been defaced with swastikas. Kosher restaurants are vandalized. Holocaust survivors have once again thrown themselves over loved ones to protect them from gunfire.
Hatred that begins with words does not remain words. It spreads. It legitimizes itself. And eventually, it kills.
Today, antisemitism often disguises itself as hostility toward Israel. It appears in chants calling for violence, on campuses where Jewish students are told they do not belong, and in rhetoric that treats Jewish self-determination as uniquely illegitimate.
When violence is justified because someone is Jewish, it is antisemitism. When it is justified because someone is Israeli – or because they believe the Jewish people have a right to a state – it is no different.
Institutions must reckon honestly with their role in this moment.
Hatred does not gain power on its own. It is enabled by authority. When false claims are repeated from international podiums, they do not stay confined to conference halls.
They travel the world stamped with legitimacy, and they harden into belief. They become chants in the streets and threats on campuses.
That is why this moment matters.
The good news is that today is not 1941. The Jewish people are no longer defenseless. We have Israel.
While we still face genocidal regimes like Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran, who continue trying to do what the Nazis failed to do – to erase us – we have a formidable military to protect us.
The days when Jews are massacred without response or consequence are over. This is what it means to no longer be defenseless. This is what “Never Again” really means. Israel will never let a second Holocaust happen.
Standing in solidarity with Israel does not mean agreeing with us on everything.
It means standing up against blind and indiscriminate terror.
It means confronting hatred before it turns into violence.
“Never Again” is not a slogan reserved for memorial days. It is a duty, one that demands clarity, courage, and action now. History is watching.
The writer is Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations.