The President and the Prime Minister of Israel spoke out about contemporary anti-Semitism at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre as Israel began marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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The ceremony was the beginning of the annual 24-hour period that honours the six million Jews murdered in death camps across Europe under Nazi Germany - considered the most solemn day of the year in Israel.
"Ideas of superiority, national purity, xenophobia, blatant anti-Semitism from left and right are hovering over Europe," President Reuven Rivlin said.
"We are not on the brink of a second Holocaust or anything like it," Rivlin said.
"But we cannot ignore the old-new anti-Semitism."
In a similar vein, Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu said: "The radical right, the radical left and radical Islam agree only on one thing: hatred of Jews.
"This hatred was manifested in vile attacks on worshippers in synagogues," he said, referring to recent attacks in the US.
On Wednesday night, bars, shops and restaurants were closed. Television and radio play only memorial music and Holocaust programmes as ceremonies take place throughout the country.
Australian Associated Press
