Biden to deliver speech on anti-Semitism at Holocaust memorial ceremony

President Biden will speak next week on Capitol Hill about the rise in anti-Semitism, addressing an issue that has been intertwined with ongoing protests on college campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Biden will deliver the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

He will discuss “our moral duty to combat the growing scourge of anti-Semitism” and how his administration is implementing a national strategy to combat hatred against Jews, she said.

These remarks will come as nationwide protests over the war in Gaza reach a boiling point, with the White House and lawmakers criticizing aspects of these demonstrations as promoting anti-Semitism.

The president, in some of his only public comments on the protests, told journalists last week that he condemned anti-Semitism, as well as those who did not understand what was happening to Palestinians in Gaza.

The Anti-Defamation League reported a huge increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, and the Biden administration has taken steps to try to mitigate the resulting threats against Jews.

Israel carried out military operations in Gaza following last October’s terrorist attacks by the Palestinian militant group that killed around 1,000 Israelis. But thousands of Palestinians have died in subsequent fighting and bombings in Gaza, and the war there has created a humanitarian crisis as citizens are left without access to adequate food, water and medicine.

The Associated Press reported that about 1,000 people have been arrested on college campuses amid ongoing protests over the war in Gaza, most notably at Columbia University, where police moved to forcibly evict protesters from a campus building on the night of Tuesday.

Biden has tried to tread a cautious line, defending Israel’s right to respond to Hamas and repeatedly condemning anti-Semitism in the wake of the attack. But at the same time, he also calls on Israel to allow more aid to Gaza and urges the country to do more to protect civilians.