(JTA) — Heavy snow in New York caused the postponement of a special U.N. General Assembly meeting commemorating International Holocaust Day.
The United Nations building was shut down due to the bad weather. Other Holocaust commemoration events planned for Thursday in New York also were postponed, according to reports.
The General Assembly in 2005 designated Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual day to honor the victims of the Nazi era.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington was scheduled to hold a candle-lighting ceremony in its Hall of Remembrance. The Washington diplomatic community and Holocaust survivors were among those expected to attend, according to the museum.
On Wednesday, in an address to Israel’s Knesset marking International Holocaust Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it is "obvious" that global anti-Semitism is "renewing and expanding."
"If anyone thought that anti-Semitism stopped after World War II and the Holocaust, it is now evident that it was only a hiatus," he said, calling on the world to fight the scourge globally.
"It is not only a threat against us because it always begins with the Jews but never ends with the Jews," Netanyahu said. "The hatred of Jews kindles an overall fire, and I expect that on this day, when I applaud the world for marking the most heinous crime in world history and the history of our people which was perpetrated against our people — I hope others will also learn the lesson. We already have."
Events commemorating International Holocaust Day took place in countries around the world.
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