Israel's Ambassador: Xenophobia, anti-Semitism exist; we must remove this darkness

Israel's Ambassador, David Saranga, said on Monday that efforts must be made to remove xenophobia and anti-Semitism, attitudes he called "darkness".

The diplomat spoke at an event organized at his residence, which celebrated the lighting of the second candle of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah, the feast of lights, is the feast in which we are removing the darkness. I think we still have darkness in the world today. If we talk about Europe, for example, where the Jews cannot go in the street as they are afraid that someone will come and will we do something to them or when we talk about other places where xenophobia and anti-Semitism exist, I think what we need to do is to remove this darkness, he said.

Saranga added that the situation here in Romania is different.

Yesterday I saw the President of Romania, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, who came to the Temple [Choral Temple] to honor the Jewish community. It is remarkable also we talk about Hanukkah and about this idea of removing the darkness, that's what needs to be done, he pointed out.

In his turn, the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, Aurel Vainer, also appreciated the event on Sunday, from the beginning of the holiday.

"Yesterday was the first evening of Hanukkah and in the Choral Temple we were honored by the representative high officials of the authority of the Romanian state, it was a great joy for us," said Vainer.

As Hanukkah and Christmas take place, this year, at the same time, young artists from the Children's Choir of the Bucharest National Opera sang carols at the event