(New York, N.Y.)— The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust’s Board Chairman Bruce Ratner and President and CEO Jack Kliger issue the following statement in response to the antisemitic attacks that took place at a soccer match in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024:
“Tomorrow marks the 86th anniversary of Germany’s Kristallnacht, one of history’s most notorious and pivotal pogroms, but the terror visited on Jews that night is resurgent today.
The antisemitic, violent attacks against Jewish soccer fans at yesterday’s Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer game in Amsterdam were abhorrent.
We cannot conflate the right to express civil and democratic dissent with the actions of a government—including Israel’s government— with the vicious beatings and harassment of Israeli citizens and other Jews belonging to the global diaspora; this is hateful antisemitism. It is criminal, immoral, and requires the strongest condemnation.
Jews deserve to exist, live, and thrive with safety—whether walking the streets in the communities where they live or when visiting another country as tourists.
Antisemitism, which has festered for thousands of years, is as old a hatred as it is current, and that should trouble us all. As leaders of New York’s Holocaust museum, we are deeply disturbed by the documented rise in antisemitic views and violence across the globe, including in the United States and here in New York.
We urge elected officials, religious and community leaders, educators and institutions everywhere to teach the lessons of history, demonstrate moral courage, and commit themselves to extinguishing this hatred once and for all.”