"Passover is a time to celebrate a journey from oppression to
freedom.
"We remember all our Jewish brothers and sisters, who have
battled against discrimination and faced the most horrific acts
of violence and mass murder.
"This year marks 75 years since a group of Jewish partisans in
Warsaw, on the first night of Passover, discovered that the Nazis
intended to destroy their ghetto.
"They decided to stay and fight holding out against the Nazi war
machine for a month.
"We think also about rising levels of antisemitism around the
world.
"In Poland, the government has passed laws making it illegal to
acknowledge Polish complicity in the Holocaust. They have frozen
the law that returns property looted by Nazis to Holocaust
survivors.
"In France, the neo-fascist National Front is on the rise and
just days ago 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Mirielle Knoll, was
brutally stabbed to death in an antisemitic attack. In the US
too, we see the far right extremists gathering support for their
hateful ideology.
"It is easy to denounce antisemitism when you see it in other
countries, in other political movements. It is sometimes harder
to see it when it is closer to home.
"We in the labour movement will never be complacent about
antisemitism.
"We all need to do better.
"I am committed to ensuring the is a welcoming and secure
place
for Jewish people.
"And I hope this Passover will mark a move to stronger and closer
relations between us and everyone in the Jewish community.
"In the fight against antisemitism, I am your ally and I always
will be.
"I wish you and your family a Chag Sameach."
