Israel’s Consulate in New York launched a Times Square billboard campaign on Monday to mark Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The digital display features the messages “6,000,000 Was Never Just a Number” and “Never Again Is Now,” alongside a rotating image of Jewish victims, including children, in what appears to be a concentration camp.
Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, linked the Holocaust to contemporary threats facing the Jewish state.
“On Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, the Jewish people have proven that this time, we have the ability to defend ourselves and repel any danger or threat, no matter how extreme or unhinged it may be,” Akunis stated. “Then from Nazi Germany. Today, from the Ayatollah regime in Iran.”
Akunis criticized world leaders for staying quiet on Iran’s stated intentions to erase Israel.
“To our astonishment, with the exception of the United States, the Western world remains silent in the face of threats from an extremist and dangerous regime seeking the destruction of the state of Israel,” Akunis stated. “This is a policy that leads to new peaks of antisemitism and blood libels, just as in the 1930s, at the beginning of World War II.”
The billboard campaign is part of a broader effort by the consulate to raise awareness about antisemitism and underscore Israel’s role as a defender of the Jewish people.