Rivlin commemorates Babi Yar massacre in Kiev

President Reuven Rivlin was in Ukraine today to mark the 75th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, when Nazi forces massacred more than 33,000 Jews in a ravine in Kiev. They later attempted to hide their atrocities.

“The blood of our brothers and sisters, that was spilled at that dark time, places upon us the duty to remember, and teach the whole world, about the dangers of not just anti-Semitism, but of all hatred, and all racism,” he told a special plenary of the Ukrainian Parliament.

President Reuven Rivlin at a state receoption in Kiev, September 27, 2016 (Haim Zach / GPO)
President Reuven Rivlin at a state receoption in Kiev, September 27, 2016 (Haim Zach / GPO)

“Two terrible sins took place in that valley. The first was the sin of murder and extermination, and the second sin was the sin of concealment and the destruction of memory.”

Rivlin, who also met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, hailed the 25 years of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Kiev and the recent surge in cooperation with Poroshenko’s government.

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