Kiss frontman plans Holocaust memorial festival

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Gene Simmons, bassist and lead singer of the cult rock band Kiss, called on Thursday to expand identification with the Holocaust outside the Jewish community during a United Nations genocide commemoration event. Simmons' mother She survived the Nazi death camps as a teenager and moved to Israel after the war. Born in Haifa, Simmons moved to the US as a teenager and considers himself Israeli.

The glam rocker criticized an event he attended with Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, chairman of Yad Vashem. Dani Dayan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres at UN Headquarters in New York, which took place the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Simmons said, urging the Jewish community to involve other groups in reporting on the Holocaust and its activities.

“We must connect the Holocaust with all the hatred that has been going on around the world throughout history”, – he told The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the event, proposing a multi-ethnic musical event.

“Festival “Never Again”, which will bring together people of all nationalities, all faiths, all religions, all skin tones – great idea”, – he said. ”The collected money will go to charity and, of course, to Yad Vashem” and other organizations to try to stop this hatred.
“We should have U2 and other people who mean something,” – considers the rocker.

Gene Simmons also linked the Holocaust to other manifestations of hatred and discrimination, including the war in Ukraine.

“You have to link Ukrainian history to the Holocaust and all peoples and flowers, otherwise they will not care”, – Simmons said. “Have an Armenian representative there who will say: “I experience and feel the pain of the Jewish Holocaust because we Armenians lost a million men, women and children at the hands of the Turks”.

“When Martin Luther King was marching on Birmingham with a rabbi by his side, – Simmons said. “If you ignore the hate of someone who is different from you, you will be next. The Holocaust is not the exclusive prerogative of the Jews”.

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