Biden meets with Holocaust survivors at memorial in Jerusalem
For the final event of his day Wednesday on his trip to Israel, President Joe Biden visited the country's national Holocaust memorial, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and spoke intimately with two American Holocaust survivors.
The visit was a solemn one. Biden was invited to "rekindle" the eternal flame and lay a wreath on the slab of marble under which the ashes of Holocaust victims from the concentration camps are buried.
Two U.S. Marines placed the wreath on the slab, and Biden bent down to put a hand on it, before taking a quiet moment in front of the slab.
The president spent several minutes speaking to two American Holocaust survivors, Dr. Gita Cycowicz and Rena Quint, urging the women to sit as he approached.
Biden knelt down and spent several minutes speaking to them in close proximity, with most of the conversation muffled by the shutter of reporters' cameras. Biden gave both women and hug and kiss on the cheek.
The conversation surpassed 10 minutes and eventually expanded to include other Israeli leaders as well.
Some of the light heated chatter at the end of their meeting could be heard, with one of the survivors telling Biden she liked seeing him and first lady Jill Biden holding hands.
"As I told you, everybody knows I love my wife more than she loves me," Biden said to them.
After one of the survivors said she was 86, Biden said that in his family, "No woman is ever as old as any man."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was a Holocaust survivor, also took part in the event. He also greeted the survivors with Biden, spending some time speaking to them.
As the group left, Biden recited a classic "Bidenism," telling the women, "My mother would say, 'God love you, dear' and was seen on camera blowing a kiss as he went up the stairs.
Biden then signed the guest book at the memorial.
"It is a great honor to be back," he appeared to write, in part, "We must never, ever forget... We must teach every generation that it can happen again unless we remember. That is what I teach my children and my grandchildren. Never forget."
