The statement yesterday cited the "victims, survivors, heroes" of the Holocaust but did not mention Jews or anti-Semitism.
News reports said the omission on International Holocaust Remembrance Day was apparently an oversight.
The Anti-Defamation League called the omission odd.
Its chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter: "Puzzling and troubling @WhiteHouse #HolocaustMemorialDay stmt has no mention of Jews. GOP and Dem. Presidents have done so in the past."
Last year, Barack Obama's statement on the Holocaust said, "we solemnly remember the six million Jews and the millions of others murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust."