The Consul General of Israel in New York, Dani Dayan spoke to Arutz Sheva while attending the Haaretz Judaism, Israel and Diaspora Conference.
Tell me your thoughts and feelings after visiting Pittsburgh during the memorial for the victims of the terror attack at the Tree of Life synagogue a year ago.
"There was no other place in the world I felt I should be except Pittsburgh when the community commemorated the horrific attack. I was there exactly one year ago. I arrived Saturday night when the bodies were still lying inside the Tree of Life synagogue. It reminded me of another terrible occasion - when I arrived in Itamar when the bodies of the Fogel family were still lying in the house. It's the same anti-Semitism even if it's thousands of miles apart."
"It was a day of bowing heads, shedding tears, a day to commemorate - not work. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't act. We should act and we should act forcefully."
How do you look at the Pittsburgh attack - as a one-time terrible incident or part of a phenomenon?
"It's not a one-time phenomenon. It also happened at [the Chabad of] Poway in California and it almost happened in other places but law enforcement agencies thwarted it. And in Brooklyn Jews are harassed almost daily, which is also anti-Semitism. Of course, the United States of 2019 is not Germany of 1930 - we are far from that But the difference between us and our brethren then is that now we're more experienced. We know where anti-Semitism can bring us and that we must fight it."
How? What should be done?
"Israel doesn't have the authority to operate outside its boundaries but we do have the responsibility [to address anti-Semitism]. And at every meeting with government officials, city or state - we demand that they forcefully combat anti-Semitism. They do it but judging by the results it's not enough."