More than a century ago, 1.5 million Armenians were rounded up and slaughtered amid a campaign of extermination that history has long acknowledged was the 20th century’s first genocide. We all know too well it would not be the last.
For decades, no United States president had called the atrocities what they were even as we collectively each year recall the horrors of the Holocaust. That changed this weekend, April 24, 2021, when President Joe Biden heroically and rightfully called the horrific events of the 1915-1918 Genocide. Jewish World Watch, which has long stood with the Armenian-American community in its push for truth, justice and reconciliation, applauds President Biden and thanks him for standing on the right side of history.
In 2007, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, founder of Jewish World Watch, recognizing the 92nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, said, “Memory is an essential ingredient to develop moral sensibility. Amnesia of the past slides into amnesia of the future. To deny yesterday is to forget tomorrow…It is an insult to yesterday’s victims and today’s.”
Please join Jewish World Watch in thanking President Biden and applauding his leadership. Just as we stood with those in Darfur, stand today with Uyghurs fighting for their human rights, we too stand with President Biden and echo his sentiments that:
“With strength and resilience, the Armenian people survived and rebuilt their community. Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history.”
We will not deny the atrocities of yesterday nor turn our backs on those who continue to be perpetrated.