President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” in the US following the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel and said people were already forgetting the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Speaking at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance, Biden tied the anti-Jewish sentiment that led to the Nazi effort to exterminate Jews directly to October 7.

“This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust,” he said.

“It didn’t end with the Holocaust, either.”

For Biden, a self-described Zionist, the speech was a clear assertion of his support for Jewish Americans as he struggles to balance his support for Israel with increasingly forceful calls for the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Biden’s address also comes as protests against Israel’s war in Gaza roil college campuses, with students demanding that the Biden administration stop sending weapons to Israel. In some cases, the demonstrations have included antisemitic rhetoric and harassment targeting Jewish students.

“I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world,” the President said. But, he added, “There is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.”

Biden also denounced attempts to minimise the Hamas attacks, which killed 1,200 people in Israel and sparked a war that has killed an estimated 34,000 people in Gaza.

“Now here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven-and-a-half months later, and people are already forgetting,” Biden said. “They are already forgetting. That Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalised Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages.

“I have not forgotten, nor have you,” he said.

Jewish groups have been pressuring the administration to take firmer policy steps to combat antisemitism on college campuses, in particular. On Tuesday, the Biden administration fulfilled some of those requests.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights released new guidance to every school and college outlining examples of antisemitic discrimination, as well as other forms of hate, that could lead to investigations for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Biden made a tacit acknowledgement during his speech that the pro-Palestinian cause has resonated with other minority groups with histories of violence and oppression.

“We must give hate no safe harbour against anyone — anyone,” Biden said.

For Jews monitoring a spike in hate crimes and instances of antisemitic rhetoric amid pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, Biden’s speech was both fiercely necessary and fiercely appreciated.

The Anti-Defamation League, which has been tracking antisemitic incidents since the 1970s, says the number of such episodes has reached all-time highs in four of the last five years.