A Holocaust remembrance ceremony was held at the Rockland County Court House Monday to call for justice and stop hate.

Elected officials, religious leaders and Holocaust survivors gathered for the annual event, with this year’s theme being Defenders of Democracy.

The Anti-Defamation League found that there were 580 antisemitic cases in New York in 2022, which was the highest in the country and a 39% increase from 2021.

This year's event honored Anne Minihan, the administrative judge for the Ninth Judicial District, which includes the lower Hudson valley.

Minihan discussed the importance the legal system plays, including those serving jury duty.

"You have the opportunity, the duty and potentially the honor of making sure that antisemitism does not enter the conversation of a deliberating jury. That's a little justice in action. And while you're at it, you can make sure that prejudice and bias of any kind has no place in the jury room,” she said.

The Justice Brandeis Law Society's Ninth Judicial District partnered with the Holocaust Museum and Center for Tolerance and Education for this year's event, which has been going on for more than a decade.

Six candles were lit to represent recognition, grief, courage, remembrance, action and hope. A seventh candle was lit in memory of 96-year-old Alan Moskin who recently died.

Moskin lived in Nanuet and was a World War II veteran who liberated a concentration camp during the war.

Rockland County has the largest Jewish population per capita in the entire country.