Women's March leader Linda Sarsour penned a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that omitted any mention of the Jewish people, two years after she attacked President Donald Trump for the same thing.
In January 2017, the White House was criticized after its inaugural Holocaust Remembrance Day statement omitted any mention of the Jewish people, instead referring broadly to "the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror."
Among those critics was Sarsour. "How do you have a Remembrance Day for the holocaust and not mention Jews?!" she tweeted. "Absolutely outrageous. Definition of anti-semitism."
How do you have a Remembrance Day for the holocaust and not mention Jews?! Absolutely outrageous. Definition of anti-semitism. https://t.co/onurkajVwk
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) January 29, 2017
But in her own Holocaust Remembrance Day statement posted to Facebook Sunday, Sarsour did the exact same thing and omitted any reference to Jews.
"May the memories of those who perished inspire us to love and protect one another. May we never forget history so that we may never repeat it," she wrote. "May their stories instill a sense of commitment and determination in our movements and communities to never leave anyone behind. May they rest in an eternal peace knowing that we will fight for each other no matter the consequences."
Sarsour's omission comes amid allegations that the Women's March leadership harbors anti-Semitic beliefs, allegations that led the Democratic National Committee and prominent progressive women to forego involvement with the 2019 march. Sarsour in particular has been criticized for her fondness for and defense of the Nation of Islam, an anti-Semitic and homophobic hate group, and two of her fellow Women's March leaders reportedly spread falsehoods about Jewish people as the group was initially being organized:
Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez "allegedly first asserted that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people—and even, according to a close secondhand source, claimed that Jews were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade," Tablet magazine reports. Tablet noted that these theories are "canards popularized by The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, a book published by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam."
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Sarsour released a statement saying the organization "should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting anti-Semitism," but the same week she also complained in her open letter about being forced to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.