The United Nations wished those among its 16.4 million followers who were observing Yom Kippur a “blessed and peaceful” holiday on Thursday, well after the Jewish High Holiday had already begun.
The message was just the second time it has issued a High Holidays statement. It released the same statement, verbatim, on Oct. 11, 2024.
It did so last year after JNS pressed the United Nations on why it shared messages on social media about many other holidays but not Jewish ones. JNS put the question last year to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, during a U.N. press briefing.
“Well, if—I would actually like to, to do that, uh, today in advance, and I’d like to wish all of, uh, all of the—the Jewish communities around the world to have a happy, uh, and peaceful Yom Kippur,” Haq told JNS last year. “This has been, without a doubt, uh, a difficult year, and—and we’re hoping that, uh, that the promise of the future can be bright for everyone.”
The United Nations did not share a message for Rosh Hashanah this year.
Yosi Levi Sfari, Israeli ambassador to Bulgaria, responded to the U.N. statement this year, “We wish all those observing it a blessed and peaceful Yom Kippur.”
“‘All those observing’ are ‘Jews,’” the Israeli envoy wrote, adding three exclamation points.
Fares Saeb, another Israeli diplomat, also responded to the United Nations. “How hard is it to write ‘Jewish’ or ‘Israel’ in a positive post?” Saeb wrote. “Your friends from Hamas launched five rockets from Gaza towards Israeli towns this morning.”
