Biden condemns the rise in anti-Semitism since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel: NPR

President Biden arrives to speak at the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on May 7.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden arrives to speak at the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on May 7.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden condemned anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses in his speech during a ceremonial event at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday: the commemoration of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Biden drew a line from the atrocities of the Holocaust to the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, saying what followed that day was despicable.

“We have seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism in America and around the world,” Biden said.

He described Jewish students facing harassment, posters and slogans “calling for the destruction of Israel,” and attempts by some to deny what happened on October 7.

“We know that hate never goes away. He just hides and if you give him some oxygen he will come out from under the rocks. We also know what hate holds back – one thing – all of us.”

Biden delivered brief remarks last week denouncing the “chaos” on college campuses and saying things had gone too far.

On Tuesday, he reiterated that people have the right to speak, debate and protest about issues they care about. “But there is no place on any campus in America — anywhere in America — for anti-Semitism or hate speech or threats of violence or any kind,” he said.

Biden said anti-Semitism motivated him to run for president

Biden often talks about how the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us” played a big role in his decision to run for president – although he maintains that history the bipartisan event at the Capitol on Tuesday.

President Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson hold images of Holocaust victims during the annual memorial ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson hold images of Holocaust victims during the annual memorial ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The president often describes his father teaching the family about the horrors of the Holocaust at the dinner table. The lesson: silence is complicity. Biden took his own children and grandchildren to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany to ensure they learned the same lesson.

“His track record on this issue puts him in a unique position to make the case that Americans must pay attention to anti-Semitic incidents,” said Sarah Hurwitz, former speechwriter for Michelle Obama and author of “ Here all the timea book about Judaism.

“I think he senses that something very old and very ugly is coming back to haunt us,” Hurwitz said.