Superstar: Pope Francis is breaking through. Image by Getty Images

VATICAN CITY, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Pope Francis called on European countries on Monday to do more to fight anti-Semitism, saying indifference on the issue was a virus that could allow the ideas of racial hatred to spread.

Francis issued his appeal in a speech to a Rome conference on the responsibility of states to fight anti-Semitism and crimes associated with it.

“We are responsible when we are able to respond. It is not merely a question of analyzing the causes of violence and refuting their (anti-Semitic crimes’) perverse logic, but of being actively prepared to respond to them,” he told the event organized by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Antisemitism Notebook

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

A number of European nations have made it illegal to deny the Holocaust, the Nazi attempt to exterminate European Jewry during World War Two.

Last week, Germany’s lower house of parliament called for the creation of a new government post to oversee the fight against anti-Semitism, following the burning of Jewish symbols and Israeli flags.

“Indifference is a virus that is dangerously contagious in our time, a time when we are ever more connected with others, but are increasingly less attentive to others,” the pope said.

Francis, who made an emotional visit to the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 2016 and visited Rome’s synagogue the same year, said the “vaccine” against “so many deplorable forms of apathy” is memory.

Quoting his predecessor, Pope John Paul, Francis said everyone should work for a future where “the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible.” Shoah is the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount