Israeli President Isaac Herzog began his state visit to Romania by leading commemorations marking the 85th anniversary of the Iași Pogrom, one of the darkest chapters of the Holocaust, where some 13,000 Romanian Jews were brutally murdered in the streets of Iași and aboard the infamous “death trains.”

At the city’s Jewish cemetery, Herzog attended a memorial ceremony and the reburial of 22 recently identified victims before touring the Iași Holocaust Museum, where he unveiled a memorial plaque honoring the victims and reaffirming Israel and Romania’s joint commitment to fighting antisemitism. “If you want to understand how cruelty can suddenly consume an entire society, you have to come here,” Herzog said.

Herzog praised Romania’s efforts to confront its Holocaust history and warned that the lessons of Iași remain urgent as antisemitism rises worldwide. He stressed that Israel is the only homeland and safe haven of the Jewish people, adding that remembering atrocities like the Iași Pogrom is essential to ensuring they are never repeated.

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