Romanian Jews played an essential role in the founding and development of the State of Israel and continue to serve as a living bridge between Romania and the Jewish people, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday during ceremonies marking the 85th anniversary of the Iasi Pogrom.
Herzog, who took part in the 12th edition of the March of Life in Iasi, held in memory of the victims of the June 1941 pogrom, thanked the Romanian authorities 'for their commitment to combating antisemitism and preserving the memory of the Holocaust.'
The Jews of Romania played an essential role in the founding and development of the State of Israel and continue to serve as a living bridge between Romania and the Jewish people. At a time of resurgent antisemitism, we share a responsibility to defend truth, memory and human dignity. I thank the Mayor of Iasi, Mihai Chirica, as well as the President, Parliament and Government of Romania for their commitment to combating antisemitism and preserving the memory of the Holocaust (...) Today I look to the past, mourn those who were lost and recite the Kaddish prayer in their memory, in the name of our past and for our future, Isaac Herzog said.
The ceremony, attended by Romanian officials, representatives of the Jewish community and Israeli delegations, marked 85 years since the Iasi Pogrom, one of the darkest episodes in Romania's history.
I came today from Jerusalem, with the blessing of the people of Israel, with profound humility and emotion, to fulfil, as President of the State of Israel, this solemn duty of remembrance. This act of commemorating the thousands of Jewish women, men, children and elderly people murdered on this soil, in Iasi and its surroundings, between June 28 and July 6, 1941, cannot erase the victims' suffering. It does not diminish the moral guilt of the perpetrators. It cannot undo the crimes, the humiliation, the beatings or the death trains, orchestrated at the highest levels but carried out by people from every part of society during those terrible summer days 85 years ago. Nor does it help us answer this simple yet burning question: how? How can such cruelty, spread throughout an entire society, be understood? How was it possible that in a great European city, which for centuries had been a thriving centre of Jewish life, the image of God in humanity was erased? The only answer to this disturbing question is a deafening silence, the Israeli leader said.
He also recalled that the first version of Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah ('The Hope'), was written in Iasi by Naftali Herz Imber.
President Isaac Herzog is paying a state visit to Romania together with First Lady Michal Herzog. On Monday, he is scheduled to meet Romanian President Nicusor Dan at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace before addressing the Romanian Parliament. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Lupascu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)
Israel's President Herzog: Romanian Jews played essential role in founding State of Israel
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