Biden administration marks Hanukkah with denunciation of antisemitism

The Biden administration is marking the celebration of Hanukkah this year by publicly denouncing antisemitism in the United States, with Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Jew, calling for Americans to unite against "bigotry in any of its forms."

Posted 2:40 a.m. Dec 19, 2022 — Updated 1:42 p.m. Dec 19, 2022

Aileen Graef

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Jack Forrest, CNN

CNN — The Biden administration is marking the celebration of Hanukkah this year by publicly denouncing antisemitism in the United States, with Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Jew, calling for Americans to unite against "bigotry in any of its forms."

"Together, we must stand up against the disturbing rise in antisemitism. And together, we must stand up against bigotry in any of its forms. Our democracy depends on it," Garland said at the National Menorah lighting ceremony on Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah. "As a descendant of those who fled persecution because they were Jewish, it is especially meaningful to be here tonight as we light this menorah in our nation's capital and under the protection of its laws."

President Joe Biden will host a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday, during which he will deliver remarks and add the first-ever White House menorah to the White House collection, according to a White House official. During his remarks, Biden will decry resurgent antisemitism around the world and "forcefully say that all forms of hate, antisemitism, and violence can have no safe harbor in America," the official also said.

This year's holiday comes amid a rise in antisemitic violence and crime. In the past week, a 63-year-old man was assaulted in New York in what police are calling an antisemitic attack; an individual hacked into a North Carolina high school's intercom system and allegedly made antisemitic remarks over the loudspeaker; and on Saturday, police responded to reports of antisemitic graffiti at a Maryland high school.

The administration's message also comes amid outcry following former President Donald Trump's decision to host Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. The rapper has since made a series of increasingly more extreme antisemitic remarks, and at one point, praised Adolf Hitler.

While some Republican lawmakers condemned Trump's meeting with the two men, many were reluctant to blame the ex-president, including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy.

"All of us at the Department of Justice will never stop working to confront and combat violence and other unlawful acts fueled by hate," Garland said. "That is our legal obligation. But, now more than ever, all Americans have a moral obligation to stand up against such hate."

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, said in an interview with CNN ahead of the ceremony, "the message of light over darkness and its triumph over darkness, I should say, could not be more timely than in what we are going through right now with a rise in antisemitism and people becoming actually very cautious about their Jewish identity as a result."

Shemtov has led the National Menorah lighting ceremony for more than 30 years.

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