Israeli ambassador: Holocaust lessons vital amid post-October 7 antisemitism

"The number of Jews murdered that day was the highest since the Holocaust," he said. "But there’s a difference—now we can fight back, and we will, until all our hostages return."

 Ambassador Rozenblat and Porto Holocaust Museum Director Michael Rothwell speaking to hundreds of children in the Hall of Names. (photo credit: Holocaust Museum of Porto)
Ambassador Rozenblat and Porto Holocaust Museum Director Michael Rothwell speaking to hundreds of children in the Hall of Names.
(photo credit: Holocaust Museum of Porto)

The difference between October 7 and the Holocaust is that "now we can fight back," Israeli Ambassador to Portugal, Oren Rozenblat, said during an event to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on at the Holocaust Museum of Porto, Portugal, on Monday.

The museum hosted a thousand local students and dignitaries.

"Since the October 7th massacre antisemitism has raised its ugly face, but we will fight it," said Rozenblat.

He drew a parallel between the October 7 massacre - and the subsequent rise in antisemitism - and the atrocities of the Holocaust.

"The number of Jews murdered that day was the highest since the Holocaust," he said. "But there’s a difference—now we can fight back, and we will, until all our hostages return."

 Dr. Michael Rothwell, director of the Holocaust Museum in Porto, together with Portuguese teenagers who participated in the memorial service for the victims of the Holocaust on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (credit: CIP/CJP - BIZARRO)Enlrage image
Dr. Michael Rothwell, director of the Holocaust Museum in Porto, together with Portuguese teenagers who participated in the memorial service for the victims of the Holocaust on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (credit: CIP/CJP - BIZARRO)

Education, Rozenblat continued, is essential for Holocaust remembrance 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.

"We have a duty to educate," he said, praising Porto's Jewish community, which founded the museum, for its  "invaluable work" In teaching about the Holocaust.

Porto Holocaust Museum

The Porto Holocaust Museum is the only museum of its kind in Europe, in that it is operated by a Jewish community.

The museum is filled with artifacts brought by refugees who arrived in the city in the 1940s, and many of its leaders lost family members during the Holocaust.

The museum’s director, Michael Rothwell, shared his experience of growing up without grandparents and with traumatized parents, something many other museum readers can relate to.


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"Some were shot after digging their own graves; others were gassed and burned in Auschwitz. Some survived only through unimaginable suffering," Rothwell explained.

However, the Holocaust originated much before the rise of the Nazxi party, Rothwell added, pointing out that the defamation of Jews and the persecution and othering of Jews began long before.

"The Nazis exploited these age-old prejudices in order to implement the Final Solution," he said.

Because of this, the Porto Holocaust Museum does not only educate new generations on the Holocaust but also on earlier genocides or pogroms of the Jewish people. 

In 2024, the museum presented a film on the 1506 Lisbon massacre, where over 3,000 Jews were brutally murdered.

A second film to be released in May will address the 1493 abduction of 2,000 Spanish Jewish children.

Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Jewish Community of Porto, and a descendant of Polish Jews who fled to Brazil,  said he felt the promise of "Never Again" was an empty one.

“We want to see real action that acknowledges the Holocaust’s connection to centuries of genocides against Jews," he said.