Eighty years ago, on May 8, 1945, in a bunker beneath Berlin, Adolf Hitler ended his life – and with it, the Nazi regime that plunged the world into chaos and dragged six million Jews into the abyss. The war ended. The killing stopped. But the trauma endured. And with it, the Jewish people’s unyielding commitment to memory, justice, and survival.
This week, Jewish leaders from around the world returned to Berlin – not in fear, and not in mourning, but in defiance and solidarity. We came to honor the past, but also to confront the present. We came because antisemitism, long thought relegated to history, is surging once again: louder, bolder, more global from the far Left and the far Right; from the shadows and the spotlight. And above all, we came to stand together for the Jewish future.
Since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, antisemitism has exploded in virtually every country where Jews live. It is not subtle. It is not isolated. It is unmistakable and accelerating – from university campuses to government halls, from city streets to cyberspace. Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centers are under attack. Hate that once hid behind screens now marches in the streets. In far too many places, Israel’s very right to exist is not just questioned, it is denied, vilified, and assaulted. Jews are held collectively responsible for defending themselves.
The statistics are alarming. But we are not here because of data. We are here because of duty.
Just steps from our gathering lie the Stolpersteine – brass stumbling stones etched with the names of deported Jews. Nearby stands Berlin’s haunting Holocaust memorial, a city-sized warning of what unchecked hatred can destroy. Beneath our feet lies the bunker, once the nerve center of genocidal tyranny, now a sunken footnote to history.
Above ground, Jewish life thrives once more
YET, ABOVE ground, Jewish life thrives once more. More than 200,000 Jews now call Germany their home. Hebrew echoes in playgrounds. Israeli literature lines bookstore shelves. Jewish voices serve in the Bundestag. When Hamas unleashed its atrocities on October 7, 2023, Berlin responded not with equivocation but with moral clarity. Israeli flags flew over the Rathaus and government ministries, where once the swastika reigned. That image – the blue and white rising where once flew the black and red – was not merely symbolic. It was historic.
Germany’s commitment to its reckoning with the past is real. It is meaningful. And in an age when truth is under siege, Germany’s model of remembrance and responsibility deserves to be recognized and emulated.
But memory alone is no shield. The past must inform the present and shape our defense of the future. That is why we are here.
As American Jews, we bring to this moment our hard-won experience: building coalitions, mobilizing communities, and advancing the values that sustain vibrant, inclusive societies. We are forging new alliances across borders and political divides, because the fight against antisemitism cannot be provincial. It must be global.
We know this ancient hatred rarely stays contained. It metastasizes, threatening not only Jews but the very foundations of civil society: decency, tolerance, and pluralism. Unwavering support for the State of Israel must stand at the center of any serious campaign against antisemitism. Israel is not the cause of antisemitism, it is the answer to it. It is the refuge made real; the sovereign response of a people who refuse to vanish.
Today, in Berlin, Jerusalem, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, and beyond, we gather not just to remember, but to assert. To affirm that 80 years after Hitler’s fall, the Jewish people live, thrive, and lead.
This city is no longer the capital of the Third Reich. It is a capital of memory. But memory without vigilance is not enough.
We are here to ensure the past stays past; that our presence carries purpose. And that the words “Never Again” are not merely spoken, but lived. Every day, by each of us.
All of us.
The writer is the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the central coordinating body representing 50 diverse national Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern. Follow him on X at @daroff.