Today, ADC Chairman Dvir Abramovich issued the following statement to mark the one year anniversary of the Christchurch massacre:
“One year ago, we were all heartbroken by the tragedy in Christchurch, when a an evil white-supremacist, driven by hatred, murdered 51 parishioners in two mosques in Christchurch.
As I said then, this unspeakable act against our brothers and sisters was an attack on us all.
We were all shaken to the core.
That the gunman murdered people in a house of worship meant that no person and no faith were safe from such abhorrent assaults.
On this somber occasion, we grieve and mourn for the innocent lives lost and our thoughts are with the bereaved families whose ongoing suffering is unimaginable.
We hope that our words of support, for the people of New Zealand and for the Muslim community there and in Australia, offer a small measure of solace, and that they draw some comfort from our solidarity with them.
This depraved and brutal crime was a timely reminder about the escalating threat of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi movements who seek to destroy us.
Jewish communities around the world understand very well the horrific consequences of blind prejudice and intolerance, and we reiterate our call for all good people and governments to unite in pledging to combat that all forms of bigotry, hate speech, divisive rhetoric, xenophobia and violence.
This would be one way to honour the sacred memory of the victims and to ensure that such tragedies never happen again.