President Biden speaks at a White House Hanukkah event.
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00:00 of the United States.
00:01 (Applause.)
00:10 >> The President: Rabbi, thank you.
00:11 Thank you for your blessings.
00:13 You know, thank you, Doug, and the staff,
00:17 for lighting this special White House menorah.
00:19 As Doug said, that was from a piece of material
00:24 from one of the beams in the White House.
00:26 And I thought it's about time we had a permanent menorah
00:29 here in the White House.
00:31 (Applause.)
00:34 And to all of you, this means so much to Jill and me
00:38 and to Doug and Kamala that you're here.
00:41 You know, I also want to thank --
00:44 special thanks to my buddy,
00:45 right -- standing right here in the front, Chuck Schumer.
00:48 (Applause.)
00:54 Chuck's our leader in the Senate.
00:55 He's a great leader. Recently, he delivered
00:56 a powerful and historic speech.
00:59 And I mean a powerful and historic --
01:00 combating anti-Semitism.
01:02 I encourage everyone to read it.
01:04 Everyone in America should read it.
01:05 Chuck, thank you, pal. You always stand up.
01:08 (Applause.)
01:11 The Talmud says, "What comes from the heart
01:13 goes to the heart."
01:15 That's the warmth and kinship I feel
01:17 so deeply with the Jewish community.
01:19 I got in trouble -- got criticized very badly
01:21 by the southern part of my state
01:23 and some of the southern parts of the country
01:25 when, 35 years ago, I said,
01:28 "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
01:30 And I'm a Zionist.
01:31 (Applause.)
01:36 You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.
01:38 Hanukkah is a timeless story of miracles.
01:41 Think about it.
01:43 You know, from the Maccabees defeating
01:45 one of the history's most powerful empires
01:48 on an oil lasting eight days --
01:50 it was a miracle all by itself.
01:52 The flame of faith that endures from tragedy
01:55 to persecution to survival and to hope.
01:58 That's what it -- that's what it survives to --
02:00 survival and hope.
02:01 But we know this year's Hanukkah is different.
02:04 It's been 65 years since the deadliest day
02:06 of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
02:08 Sixty-five years. Most of you.
02:11 And I met -- I got to meet with five survivors downstairs.
02:13 That's why we're a little bit late.
02:15 Five survivors in each of the camps.
02:18 I've taken all my children --
02:20 when they get turned 14 years of age --
02:22 my -- my three children who lived and my five grandchildren.
02:26 When they're 14 years old, I put them on a plane
02:28 and I take them to Dachau because I want them to see.
02:30 I want them to spend the day there and see.
02:33 But you can't pretend you don't know silence is complicity.
02:36 Most of you know someone directly or indirectly --
02:39 a family, a friend -- who was stolen from you,
02:41 or wounded, traumatized, or called up in the reserves
02:44 in this last attack in Israel.
02:47 As I said after the attack, my commitment to the safety
02:50 of the Jewish people and the security of Israel
02:53 and its right to exist is independent --
02:55 Jewi- -- as an independent Jewish state is unshakable.
02:59 Folks, were there no Israel,
03:03 there wouldn't be a Jew in the world who was safe.
03:05 Were there no Israel.
03:07 (Applause.)
03:14 And I make no bones about it.
03:15 I've had my differences with some Israeli leadership.
03:18 I've known Bibi for now 51 years.
03:20 He has a picture on his desk of he and I
03:23 when he was a young member of the Israeli service here --
03:29 Foreign Service.
03:31 And I was a 32-year-old senator.
03:34 And I wrote on the top of it, "Bibi, I love you,
03:36 but I don't agree with a damn thing you had to say."
03:38 (Laughter.)
03:40 It's about the same today. I love you.
03:42 (Applause.)
03:43 We love you. It's a tough spot. It's a tough spot.
03:49 We continue to provide military assistance to Israel
03:52 until they get rid of Hamas.
03:53 (Applause.)
03:59 But -- but we have to be careful.
04:01 They have to be careful.
04:04 The whole world's public opinion can shift overnight.
04:07 We can't let that happen.
04:08 We're working relentlessly for the safe return of the hostages.
04:11 I personally spent -- (Applause.)
04:18 I personally spent countless hours --
04:20 and I mean it -- probably up to 20 hours with the Qataris
04:23 and the Egyptians, the Israelis,
04:25 to secure the freedom of hostages,
04:27 to get the trucks in,
04:28 to get the humanitarian aid flowing,
04:30 to convince them to open the gate,
04:31 to get -- have el-Sisi make sure he opened the gate into Egypt.
04:35 And there's a whole range of things going on now
04:37 that are really very, very difficult.
04:39 Very -- we've gotten more than 100 hostages out,
04:42 and we're not going to stop until we get every one of them home.
04:45 (Applause.)
04:52 And we'll continue to lead the world
04:53 in humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians.
04:58 We'll emphasize to our friends --
05:00 to our Israeli friends, we need to protect civilian life.
05:04 And let me be clear, Hamas, using rape,
05:07 sexual violence, and terrorism,
05:09 and torture of Israeli women and girls
05:11 is appalling and unforgivable.
05:12 And you should -- when I was there,
05:14 saw some of the photographs.
05:16 And it's beyond -- it's beyond comprehension.
05:21 We all have to condemn such brutality
05:23 without equivocation, without exception.
05:25 (Applause.)
05:29 I also -- I also recognize you're hurt from the silence
05:35 and the fear and for your safety
05:38 because the surge of anti-Semitism
05:40 in the United States of America and around the world is sickening.
05:44 You know, we see it across our communities and schools
05:47 and colleges and social media.
05:48 They surface painful scars from millennia to hate --
05:53 of hate to genocide of the Jewish people.
05:55 My dad was a righteous Christian, for real.
05:59 My dad, when he'd come home from work,
06:02 he was a well-read man, never had a chance to go to college.
06:05 And he'd come home before he closed down the business
06:08 he didn't own, but he managed to go back and close it.
06:11 And the kitchen table was -- the dinner table
06:14 was where we had conversation and incidentally ate.
06:17 My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah.
06:20 He talked about why we didn't let the ship in,
06:22 why we didn't bomb the railroad tracks,
06:24 and on and on and on.
06:25 I said, it awakened in me and my brothers and sisters
06:29 and our children a sense --
06:31 our grandchildren -- that this can happen again.
06:35 Silence is complicity. Silence is complicity.
06:38 As I said, that's why I've taken all my children
06:41 and grandchildren to Dachau and one to Auschwitz.
06:44 Look, folks, we just met with Holocaust survivors downstairs,
06:48 including a widow of a dear friend of the late Elie Wiesel,
06:52 who taught us about the perils of indifference.
06:55 I think that they experienced only to --
06:58 what they experienced only to see what's happening today.
07:01 It's been clear that our administration
07:04 stands with them arm and arm and arm.
07:07 We're not going to walk away. We're aggressive.
07:09 (Applause.)
07:16 We're aggressing -- we're addressing and implementing
07:19 the first-ever national strategy to combat anti-Semitism.
07:22 Prosecuting hate crimes -- (Applause.)
07:25 -- prosecuting hate crimes,
07:27 addressing anti-Semitism in schools,
07:28 increasing security around Jewish centers of life,
07:31 and more. We're calling upon all Americans to make clear
07:34 there is no place for hate in America against Jews --
07:37 (Applause.)
07:39 -- Muslims, or anybody else.
07:40 (Applause.)
07:42 That's -- that's just why I've got you --
07:44 Dr. Lurch, who's a Holocaust expert
07:46 and the first American ambassador-level
07:48 Special Envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism
07:51 around the world. It matters.
07:53 You know, in this moment, we must hold to the core values
07:57 that make us Americans --
07:59 equality, justice, freedom, dignity, respect --
08:02 values that, from the inception of our nation,
08:05 have shaped the culture, the contributions,
08:07 and the values of Jewish Americans,
08:10 including all of you, including nearly 300,000 Jews
08:13 who peacefully rallied on the National Mall last month
08:17 with enormous pride, unity --
08:19 (Applause.)
08:23 -- pride, unity, even joy,
08:25 in the face of extraordinary pain.
08:27 You embody what the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said,
08:32 "A people whose capacity for joy cannot be destroyed itself"
08:36 -- cannot destroy itself. It's indestructible.
08:39 Let me close with this. You know, after October 7th,
08:43 my father -- our father returned to his kibbutz
08:46 to salvage what he could from his home.
08:49 What was left were in the rubble and ruin.
08:53 A home which hid -- which he had hidden in with his wife
08:56 and his daughter for 20 hours before being rescued.
08:59 A home in the same neighborhood
09:00 where his beloved son was brutally murdered.
09:03 Unlike the ancient Hanukkah story --
09:06 buried piles of shattered glass,
09:09 burned debris, and bullet-riddled walls --
09:11 he pulled something from the ashes fully intact --
09:14 a menorah.
09:16 That's now on display in the foyer of this --
09:19 this White House -- your house, just outside this room.
09:23 He gave it to the President of Israel,
09:25 who lent it to the Ambassador Jack Lew --
09:27 a symbol -- a symbol of the Jewish people
09:30 that not only survive, but heal, rebuild,
09:33 and continue to shine their light on the world.
09:35 A reminder -- a reminder to hold on
09:39 to the miracle of hope and faith.
09:41 Because when we do, no night is so dark we can't find light.
09:46 No night is so dark we can't find light.
09:49 No one knows that better than the Jewish people.
09:52 So, ladies and gentlemen, happy Hanukkah,
09:54 and God bless you all.
09:56 (Applause.)