At Hanukkah event, Biden condemns rising antisemitism

US President Joe Biden has condemned antisemitism at a White House party to commemorate the second day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

The joyful holiday, which is marked by lighting candles and eating oily foods, comes amid reports of a national and global uptick in antisemitic rhetoric.

Mr Biden, the second Catholic US president, said: "I will not be silent and America will not be silent."

Anti-hate groups attribute the rise to online disinformation and hate speech.

On Tuesday night, Mr Biden noted that he was speaking to the crowd "in the midst of a rising emboldenment of antisemitism at home, and quite frankly around the world".

"I recognise your fear. You're hurt. You're worried that this violent venom is becoming too normal," he continued.

"Silence is complicity. We must not remain silent."

• Isfeng: A crispy and unique Hanukkah doughnut

According to an April report by the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish anti-hate monitor, there were 2,717 antisemitic incidents in the US last year - a 34% increase from 2020 and the highest total since the group began tracking such incidents in 1979.

Antisemitic incidents also reached a record high in the UK last year.

This year, the White House is displaying its own menorah - the candleholder that Jews light for eight consecutive nights - for the first time, Mr Biden said.

The National Menorah is also lit outside the White House each year.

Speaking at the lighting of the National Menorah on Sunday night, US Attorney General Merrick Garland - the nation's top law enforcement official - told the audience that the Nazis would have killed his grandmother if she had not been able to seek refuge in the United States.

"May we never stop working to ensure that Americans will always be able to gather to light the menorah," said Mr Garland, who is Jewish.