Trump Doesn’t Mention Jews in Holocaust Remembrance Day Message

Donald Trump Image by getty images

By Daniel J. Solomon January 27, 2017

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Friday’s Holocaust Remembrance Day that left some scratching their heads due to its omission of any reference to Jews.

“It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, and heroes of the Holocaust,” the statement from the White House Press Office read. “It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.”

The remarks immediately drew criticism from Jewish leaders, including Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt.

1/2 @WhiteHouse statement on #HolocaustMemorialDay, misses that it was six million Jews who perished, not just ‘innocent people’ pic.twitter.com/OXiFqcPi4V

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) January 27, 2017

2/2 Puzzling and troubling @WhiteHouse #HolocaustMemorialDay stmt has no mention of Jews. GOP and Dem. presidents have done so in the past. pic.twitter.com/BvZVVoPUSi

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) January 27, 2017

Former President Barack Obama’s last statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day made explicit reference to Jews, declaring that “we are all Jews.” Remarks marking Holocaust commemoration sometimes can be controversial.

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, ran into trouble in the previous year when he also forgot to specifically name-check the event’s Jewish victims.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO