photo by: Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector

Gov. Laura Kelly said the 2024 Holocaust commemoration in Topeka took on new urgency as antisemitic prejudice, hatred and conduct escalated in Kansas and elsewhere, especially in response to the military fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly said the state’s annual Holocaust commemoration Monday inspired by one of humankind’s darkest chapters of genocide felt more significant given escalation in blatant acts of antisemitism in Kansas and elsewhere in the United States.

Kelly said the Jewish Community Relations Board reported a 500% increase in antisemitic incidents in Kansas City. A budget bill approved by the 2024 Legislature included $500,000 for bullet-resistant window film and anti-vehicle limestone barriers at Jewish centers in the state.

Last year, a vendor had to be expelled from Overland Park’s farmer market because of antisemitic threats on social media. A Topeka synagogue was graffitied with pro-Palestinian messages in February.

It was 10 years ago on April 13 that a former Klansman and neo-Nazi from Missouri murdered three people at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and the Jewish retirement community Village Shalom, the governor said.

Kelly said the Jewish Community Relations Bureau reported that from 2014 to 2022, the level of antisemitic incidents tripled in the United States. And, she said, that period preceded surge in antisemitism associated with fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“I’m glad to be with all of you again for such a meaningful tradition that feels more important than ever,” Kelly said during the 2024 Holocaust commemoration ceremony in Topeka. “It is critical that we stand with the Jewish community during this difficult time. Jewish people deserve peace and security in every part of the world, and that includes here in Kansas.”

Kelly said the 6 million Jews and millions of other people from marginalized communities who died in the Holocaust of World War II must not be forgotten. Their memories should be preserved by pushing back against bigotry, hatred, prejudice as well as indifference whenever it surfaced, she said.

“Discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism, has no place in Kansas. As governor, I will continue to call out and condemn antisemitism and any rhetoric or behavior that aims to discriminate and divide,” Kelly said.

The governor signed a proclamation that affirmed May 5-12 as the “days of remembrance.” It described the Holocaust as the “state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.”

She said the history of persecution and tyranny of the Holocaust offered an opportunity for people to reflect on moral and ethical responsibilities of individuals, societies and governments.

“The state of Kansas urges its citizens to actively rededicate themselves to the principles of individual freedom in a just society,” the resolution said.