Rabbi Lau at EJA Conf. in Poland
Rabbi Lau at EJA Conf. in PolandArutz Sheva

Yad Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau participated in the European Jewish Association's (EJA) special conference on anti-Semitism, telling Arutz Sheva that the persecution of Jews has not ceased "until this day."

Speaking to Arutz Sheva on the side of the Krakow, Poland, conference, Rabbi Lau, who is a Holocaust survivor, underlined that the persecution of Jews continues until this very day.

"Unfortunately, this issue is not relegated to the past, because the past continues into the present, and anti-Semitism does not end," Rabbi Lau said. "Sometimes it increases, and sometimes it decreases slightly, but this is a phenomenon which we need to know how to handle, and to understand that it exists even in friendly countries such as the US and other Western countries - and especially, even more so, here in Poland."

"The Polish never had a special love for the Jewish nation," he noted.

In his opinion, the horrors of the Holocaust can never truly be forgotten: "The world remembers the Holocaust, and I don't believe it will be forgotten," he said. "There are institutions such as Yad Vashem and many other museums in Israel and around the world which remind us and increase awareness."

He added, "In addition, expressions and revelations of anti-Semitism do not allow us to forget the fact that we are still not accepted among the global community."

Rabbi Lau also explained why he is repulsed by the attempt to "globalize" the Holocaust, instead of focusing on the Jewish nation.

"I'm against that," he emphasized. "When it comes to six million Jewish Holocaust victims, they deserve a separate memorial. A Holocaust of other countries should be given the proper respect, but it's not comparable to the Holocaust the Jews went through."

"Esau hates Jacob, but that does not mean that we don't need to fight. If it were that simple, why would the Torah command us 'to remember and not to forget?' If we would make peace with the fact that this exists, it would not be necessary to command us to remember, and forbid us to forget. This command symbolizes, for us, the need to remember and not to forget. And they don't allow us, and we see, that they will not allow us to forget," he concluded.