Biden marks 4 years since Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

Washington, Oct 28 (IANS) US President Joe Biden marked the four-year anniversary of the attack at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, saying "we grieve this deadliest act of antisemitism in American history".

In the morning of October 27, 2018, a gunman stormed the synagogue and gunned down 11 people and injured six others, including four police officers who responded to the scene.

In a statement released by the White House on Thursday, Biden said that "we stand with the (Jewish) community in resolving to combat antisemitism and hate in all of its forms".

"As we witness an ugly increase in antisemitism in America, I established the first Ambassador-level Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and appointed the renowned Holocaust expert Deborah Lipstadt to the role."

The President also claimed that his administration worked with Congress to secure the largest-ever increase in funding for the security of synagogues and other religious institutions.

He also stressed on his determination to "tackle the scourge of gun violence that has stolen lives from Pittsburgh to Poway, from Newtown to Charleston, from Buffalo to Uvalde, and from countless other communities in between".

"I am committed to building on that progress by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines... We've done it before, and we can do it again," Biden was quoted as saying.

Antisemitic incidents in the US have been on the rise for years, with 941 incidents in 2015 and 2,717 tracked in 2021 by the Anti-Defamation League, reports CNN.