News and Events

Ronald Lauder Re-Elected As World Jewish Congress President

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Ronald S.Lauder has been re-elected as President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) at the Plenary Assembly of the organization in Budapest.

He will serve for another four-year term.

In addition to Lauder, the Assembly, comprised of delegates from over 70 Jewish communities from around the world, also elected Chella Safra from Brazil to serve as WJC Treasurer, David de Rothschild from France as the organization’s Chairman of the Governing Board, Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, as Policy Council Chairman and Mervyn Smith from South Africa as Policy Council Co-Chair.

“I see this as the top assignment for the Jewish people and I am excited to serve as President of the World Jewish Congress for another four years,” said Lauder.

Lauder is WJC President since 2007.

The 69-year-old businessman has established philanthropic organizations such as the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, an organization dedicated to rebuild Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe.

He has also been actively involved in numerous civic organizations, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish National Fund, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Brandeis University and the Abraham Fund.

From 1986 to 1987, Lauder served as U.S. ambassador to Austria.

David de Rothschild, born Baron David René James de Rothschild, 70, is chairman of Rothschild Continuation Holdings, parent company for all Rothschild banking companies, which are global and currently serve as the world’s 31st oldest bank. David was born in New York City as a result of his parents escaping the Nazis during the German occupation of France in World War II. His family moved back to France following the liberation where David ultimately took over the family banking business that was able to flourish after Socialists lost power in France.

In 1974, David married the Italian Princess Olimpia Anna Aldobrandini and they currently have four children and live in Normandy.

Chella Safra, 62, was born in Beirut and currently resides in Sao Paolo, Brazil. She has been a leader of the Jewish community in Brazil for the past 40 years and has been involved in Karen Hayesod, the Safra Foundation and many other Jewish and non-Jewish philanthropic organizations.

Safra is a member of the Executive Board and the Consulting Board of Karen Hayesod of Sao Paolo. She also founded the Women�s Division for the foundation in 1986 and has served as its Honorary President since then. Safra was the representative of Brazil at the Jewish Agency in Israel for Karen Ha�yesod and also Editor-in-Chief of Kol News, a Jewish magazine in Brazil.

She was also the President of the Women�s Committee for Social Welfare at the Beit Yaacov Congregation in Sao Paolo.

In addition, Safra also volunteered at B�nai B�rith in Brazil dealing with issues of social welfare. She co-founded Americas Amicas, an NGO dedicated to provide mammograms to help women from disadvantaged backgrounds receive testing for breast cancer.

She is married to Moise Safra and have five children and 12 grandchildren. Together they support art museums in Israel and Brazil, in addition to a plethora of other Jewish and non-Jewish philanthropic initiatives.

Robert Singer was presented as new CEO and Executive Vice President of the WJC. Singer, who currently resides in London, spent 11 years in the Israel Defense Forces, 12 years in Israel�s Prime Minister�s Office and 14 years at World ORT.

Source: European Jewish Press

EJC Welcomes Call by Watchdog's Call for Ban of Greek Neo-Nazi Party

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

The European Jewish Congress has welcomed a report by the commissioner of human rights of the Council of Europe into the situation in Greece, and in particular the racism and hate by the Golden Dawn party. “This report is a strong milestone against growing racism, hate and intolerance in Greece and we welcome the report and call for its full implementation by the Greek authorities,” EJC President Moshe Kantor said. “Most importantly, it called for the possible prohibition of the neo-Nazi party because of activities associated with it. This is a necessary first for an official European institution and we hope the situation will be monitored very carefully.”

The report is the result of a visit by Commissioner Nils Muižnieks and a delegation to Greece from 28 January to 1 February 2013. In the course of this visit the the CoE delegation held discussions with state authorities and non-governmental, national and international organizations. The present report focuses on human rights issues.

�There are some very important elements in the report which we have been calling to be implemented for many years, like anti-racism and human rights campaigns in schools, the bolstering of anti-racism laws and strong police and legal enforcement,� Kantor said. �I hope the pressure from European institutions will continue and the Greek authorities will take these recommendations seriously.

"I also hope that there will be a similar report in the future on Hungary and other nations whose human rights violations are of great concern and needs to be addressed immediately,� he added.

Source: World Jewish Congress

EJC: Possible 'Golden Dawn' Ban is 'Milestone against Racism'

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress welcomes report by Council of Europe, which affirmed that Greece has legal right to ban neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has welcomed a report by the commissioner of human rights of the Council of Europe, which affirmed that Greece has the legal right to ban the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

“This report is a strong milestone against growing racism, hate and intolerance in Greece and we welcome the report and call for its full implementation by the Greek authorities,” EJC President Moshe Kantor said. “Most importantly, it called for the possible prohibition of the neo-Nazi party because of activities associated with it. This is a necessary first for an official European institution and we hope the situation will be monitored very carefully.”

Commissioner Nils Muiznieks, who visited Greece from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, said in a 32-page report that he was "seriously concerned" by the increase in hate crimes targeting immigrants in Greece.

Golden Dawn, which gained 18 seats in the country's 300-member parliament, has become notorious for its blatant anti-Semitic and xenophobic rhetoric and has been responsible for perpetrating attacks on Jews and foreigners.

Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos has claimed that Nazi concentration camps did not use ovens and gas chambers to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.

"There were no ovens - it's a lie. I believe it's a lie. There were no gas chambers either," Michaloliakos said last year.

The party, whose logo closely resembles a Nazi swastika, openly displays "Mein Kampf" at party headquarters and has campaigned under the slogan �So we can rid the land of filth.�

"I also hope that there will be a similar report in the future on Hungary and other nations whose human rights violations are of great concern and needs to be addressed immediately,� Kantor added.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Anti-Semitic Crimes on the Rise in Europe, New Study Shows

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Researchers announced on Sunday that anti-Semitic hate crimes in Europe are up this year.

The report was released by Tel Aviv University in Israel, which worked with the European Jewish Congress, a group that represents Jewish communities in Europe.

According to the statistics presented, anti-Semitic hate crimes increased by 30 percent in the last year. The 686 attacks in 34 countries reported is a significant increase from the 526 reported attacks from 2011. Most of the crimes involve vandalism, but 40 percent of last year’s attacks (273 in total) were against people.

The report highlighted the Jewish school shooting in Toulouse last March, when a extremist Muslim gunman shot and killed four people.

According to Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, the Toulouse shooting was more so an instigator of anti-Semitic violence than Israeli�s Gaza Strip offensive last November.

The report also highlighted the rise of extremist groups across Europe, noting that the European economic crisis has fueled the creating of these groups, such as Jobbik in Hungary and Golden Dawn in Greece.

President of the European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor has called for governments to take stronger action against these groups, even going so far as to suggest to the European Union expel Hungry and Greece if the countries continue to fail to mitigate the threats these groups pose to the Jewish communities.

"If they do not protect their own population against neo-Nazism, with all the lessons Europe had already, maybe there is no place for them in the European Union," Kantor said.

Source: OpposingViews.com

Anti-Semitic Incidents Rise 30 Percent in 2012

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

A survey released Sunday showed a 30 percent increase in anti-Semitism worldwide, especially in Europe.

The annual report by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry showed the sharpest rise of anti-Semitic incidents among Islamists and extreme right-wing political groups.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director general of the European Jewish Association, called the findings "staggering" and admonished European leaders to curb the increasing legitimacy of hate groups.

The study cited three factors that played into rising anti-Semitic incidents: the growing economic instability in Europe, especially in Greece, Spain and Italy; the rise of extreme-right-wing ideology in such countries as Hungary, the Ukraine and Greece; and the widespread condemnation of Israel's response last November to daily rocket barrages on southern Israeli communities.

"Europe is in the midst of a financial crisis, which always has been a comfortable ground for fascist and anti-Semitic ideas to bloom," Rabbi Margolin explained.

According to the report, French Jews experienced a 58 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents following the assault in March on a Jewish day school in Toulouse. An Islamist gunmen killed 30-year-old Rabbi Yonatan Sandler and his two sons, Arieh, 6, and Gabriel, 3, before murdering 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the principal's daughter.

The report also noted an increase in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide following Israel's eight-day military incursion into the Gaza Strip to stop daily rocket attacks emanating from Hamas and other Islamic groups in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Jewish communities in Poland, Greece, Ukraine and Hungary were subjected to vandalism against synagogues, schools, Holocaust memorials, cemeteries and the like.

There were increasing incidents of harassment and violence in the streets, especially near synagogues and Jewish schools, some involving weapons and direct threats on people's lives.

According to the report, 2012 saw 99 anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S., 84 in the U.K. and 74 in Canada.

Source: Christian Broadcasting Network

EJC Report: 30% Rise in Anti-Semitic Activity

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Global violence and vandalism against Jews has increased by 30 percent, according to an annual survey released by The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, on Sunday.

The report follows a relative decline in numbers of anti-Semitic acts over the past two years.

Hungary was identified as the main European entity experiencing the most troubling escalation of anti-Semetic incidents, according to European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor.

The EJC has written to the European Parliament calling on it to monitor related developments.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

Report Finds 30% Increase in Anti-Semitic Incidents Worldwide

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress finds surge linked to Europe’s economic troubles, rise of extreme right parties and Toulouse school shooting

The European Jewish Congress found a 30 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the world in 2012, according to an annual report the organization published on Sunday in cooperation with Tel Aviv University.

The study linked the surge to Europe’s economic troubles and a deadly attack on Jewish schoolchildren last year in Toulouse, France.

“It appears that rather than the Toulouse attacks being a shock to the system, they had the opposite effect and perhaps allowed terrorist groups in Europe to become more emboldened,” EJC President Moshe Kantor said at anti-Semitism press conference Sunday at Tel Aviv University, pointing to attempted terror attacks across the continent against Jewish targets.

In Europe, Hungary was identified as experiencing the most worrying anti-Semitic trends and a “correlation was observed between the political strengthening of extreme right parties and the high level of anti-Semitic manifestations, including incidents of violence and vandalism,” the study revealed.

Greece and the Ukraine were also seeing similar trends of extreme right-wing parties whose anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric have apparently helped ignite attacks.

Tel Aviv University said Sunday that 686 attacks were recorded in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. The sharp increase followed a two-year decline.

�We should be doing all we can to reverse these negative trends and there needs to be a policy of ‘zero tolerance� for racism,� Kantor said. �We are reaching out to the leaders in Hungary and the EU and calling for the initiation of hearings in relevant committees, because this situation cannot continue.�

The EJC said in a press statement that it has written to the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, �calling on him to initiate parliamentary hearings and provide an official and regular monitoring of developments around these issues,�

Source: The Times of Israel

Study: Global Anti-Semitism Rises By 30 Percent

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Annual report concludes that incidents against Jews are increasing at a concerning rate; Hungary sees most troubling trends in Europe.

Global violence and vandalism against Jews has increased by 30 percent, according to an annual survey released by The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, on Sunday.

In contrast to a relative decline in numbers of anti-Semitic acts over the past two years, the report noted that a “correlation was observed between the political strengthening of extreme right parties and the high level of anti-Semitic manifestations including incidents of violence and vandalism.”

Hungary was identified as the European entity experiencing the most troubling escalation of anti-Semitic incidents, according to European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor.

“There are extremely worrying signs emanating from Hungary at the moment where barely a week passes without an attack on minorities or outrageous comments from far-Right politicians,” Kantor said at the anti-Semitism Press Conference held at Tel Aviv University Sunday.

Kantor also expressed concern for Greece and Ukraine, which experienced trends similar to those in Hungary of political advancement for neo-Nazi parties and the far-Right.

France was also regarded as troubling with a 58% increase of anti-Semitic occurrences following the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse last year.

The EJC has contacted the European Parliament president, Martin Schulz, calling for parliamentary action and surveillance of related developments.

�We are reaching out to the leaders in Hungary and the EU and calling for the initiation of hearings in relevant committees, because this situation cannot continue,� Kantor said.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Report: Anti-Semitic Incidents Surge in 2012

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported a 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of far-right parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries.

Following a two-year decline in the figures, the annual report on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents recorded 686 attacks in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. The report was issued at Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe.

The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.

Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.

They said Europe's economic crisis was fueling the success of parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments – particularly Hungary - were not doing enough to curb these parties' activities and protect minorities.

"Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe, they are openly sitting in parliaments," said Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress.

Golden Dawn swept into Greece's parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine's Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

The report by the university's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel's military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.

"This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East," he said.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was starting Sunday at sundown.

Source: Associated Press

Global Anti-Semitism Increased By 30% In 2012

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Report Shows 'Considerable Escalation' in Violent Acts and Vandalism Against Jews

Global anti-Semitism increased by 30 percent in 2012 over the previous year, an annual report found.

Following two years of decline, there was a “considerable escalation” in the level of violent acts and vandalism against Jews in 2012, according to the global anti-Semitism report for 2012 presented Sunday by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.

The report, which was presented on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, showed there were 686 violent acts and vandalism, up from 526 in 2011. They include 273 attacks on people, including 50 with a weapon, 166 direct threats on lives, and the desecration of 190 synagogues, cemeteries and monuments.

France had the most attacks with 200, up from the 114 in 2011. Next was the United States with 99; the United Kingdom, 84; Canada, 74; and Australia, 53.

The report said the increase was due in part to the terror attack on the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse in March, which killed a rabbi and three children and led to a series of copycat incidents against the Jewish community in France. Also, Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, which led to a short-lived increase in anti-Semitic acts; and an escalation in the activities of the extreme right wing and the strengthening of parties with a clear anti-Semitic agenda, notably in Hungary and Greece, as well as in Ukraine.

During a news conference Sunday to release the report’s results, Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, identified Hungary as experiencing the most worrying racist and anti-Semitic trends in Europe.

“There are extremely worrying signs emanating from Hungary at the moment where barely a week passes without an attack on minorities or outrageous comments from far-right politicians,” Kantor said. �Unfortunately, red lines keep being crossed and there needs to be an extremely strong reaction, both from the Hungarian government and the European Union to push back against these phenomena.

Kantor called for �a policy of ‘zero tolerance� for racism.� �We are reaching out to the leaders in Hungary and the EU and calling for the initiation of hearings in relevant committees because this situation cannot continue,� he said.

Source: Jewish Daily Forward

Anti-Semitic Incidents Up By 30 Percent

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Instances of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism increased by 30 percent worldwide in 2012, an annual report in Israel found.

The report by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry was released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Haaretz reported.

The center said 686 anti-Semitic incidents were reported worldwide in 2012, marking a 30 percent increase from 2011.

About 373 of those incidents took place in France, representing a 60 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the country, the report found.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said Sunday that the rise of anti-Semitism in France was partly due the Toulouse shootings, during which a rabbi and three Jewish children were fatally shot by gunman Mohammed Merah.

"The overall total was influenced by a substantial growth in violence in France, particularly following the terror attack on the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse, as well as in Hungary, the U.K., Germany and Australia," Kantor said. "The resulting wave of violent incidents in France demonstrates the extent of hatred toward the Jews is rooted in the worldview of extremist elements, regardless of any specific Middle East event."

"Rather than the Toulouse attacks being a shock to the system, they had the opposite effect and perhaps allowed terrorist groups in Europe to become more encouraged," said Kantor. "This simply demonstrates that anti-Semitism breeds anti-Semitism, pure and simple. And authorities have to act quickly and forcefully to prevent such escalations in the future."

Kantor noted that a number of extreme right-wing politicians were elected in several countries in 2012 who had made anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements.

Last year "will be remembered as the year where political Nazism returned to European parliaments in force," Kantor said. "The Jobbik party in Hungary, the Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine are not mere far-right-wing parties. ... These neo-Nazi parties have crossed all red lines on a continent where we would hope never to see again an openhanded salute, swastika-like symbols and the demand for Jews to be listed."

Source: UPI.com

Israeli Researchers See Surge in Anti-Semitic Incidents Worldwide in 2012 after 2-Year Decline

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Israeli researchers warned Sunday of a sudden upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, noting a link to the rise of extremist parties in Europe.

The warnings emerge from an annual report on anti-Semitism in the world, released on the eve of Israel’s memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by German Nazis and their collaborators in World War II.

The report noted a 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, after a two-year decline. It was issued at Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe.

The report recorded 686 attacks in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. It said 273 of the attacks last year, or 40 percent, involved violence against people.

The report linked the March, 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four people, to a series of attacks that followed - particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.

The report by the university’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel�s military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse school attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.

“This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East,” he said. An Israeli offensive in Gaza four years earlier led to a significant spike in attacks against Jews in Europe.

This year, researchers pointed to a correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.

They said Europe�s economic crisis was fueling the rise of extremist parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments - particularly in Hungary - were not doing enough to curb these parties� activities and protect minorities.

“Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe. They are openly sitting in parliaments,” Kantor complained.

Kantor, a Russian-Swiss businessman, said the EU should even consider expelling Hungary and Greece. �If they do not protect their own population against neo-Nazism, with all the lessons Europe had already, maybe there is no place for them in the European Union,� he told The Associated Press after the presentation of the report.

First, he said, his group has asked the European Parliament to hold a special hearing on Hungary. The parliament is planning the hearings, said parliament spokesman Jaume Duch.

The president of the parliament, Martin Schulz, has been openly critical of anti-Semitism in Europe.

There was no immediate reaction from European officials, but the chances of punishing any country for the results of a democratic election are slim. The EU has never suspended a member state, much less tried to expel one.

Golden Dawn swept into Greece�s parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine�s Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

Source: Washington Post

European Jewish Leader Calls upon the EU to Stop the Rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe As Shown in New Survey

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Association (EJA) Director General, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, called upon EU leaders to strengthen Europe's fight against anti-Semitism after a survey released on Sunday by the Center For the Study of Contemporary European Jewry showed that vandalism against Jews has increased by 30 percent last year.

"The findings of the survey are staggering" said Rabbi Margolin. "The EU efforts should focus not only on specific anti -Semitic incidents as horrific as they are, but rather on the increasing legitimacy hate groups are receiving from the European public and the rise of extreme-right wing parties throughout the continent," he added.

He continued, "Europe is in the midst of a financial crisis which always has been a comfortable ground for fascist and anti-Semitic ideas to bloom."

"It is time for all of the E.U leadership to take action in order to prevent history from repeating itself."

According to the annual study by the Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, which was published in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress (EJC), global violence and vandalism against Jews have risen by 30% in 2012, with 200 incidents reported in France alone.

These acts, 686 in total for 2012, include vandalism and direct threats on Jewish lives. In contrast to a relative decline in numbers of anti-Semitic acts over the past two years, the report noted that a "correlation was observed between the political strengthening of extreme right parties and the high level of anti-Semitic manifestations including incidents of violence and vandalism."

Besides France, the United States saw 99 acts, Britain 84, Canada 74 and Australia three.

Hungary was identified as the European country experiencing the most troubling escalation of anti-Semitic incidents. "There are extremely worrying signs emanating from Hungary at the moment where barely a week passes without an attack on minorities or outrageous comments from extreme-right politicians," EJC President Moshe Kantor said at a press conference at Tel Aviv University on Sunday.

The report cited three factors to explain the rise: the general increase (58%) of ase of anti-Semitic occurrences in France following the terror attack in Toulouse against a Jewish school, which made 2012 the most violent year since 2004, the rise of the extreme-right parties in several European countries, notably Greece, Hungary and Ukraine, where parties with a distinct anti-Semitic line have started vying for power, and Israel’s November 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas which saw an increase in anti-Semitic activities worldwide.

Poland also registered a rise in vandalism incidents, mostly aimed against Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials, according to the report.

The incidents registered in 2012 include 273 attacks against Jews, some of them student and teens, which make 40% of all incidents. Some 50 violent incidents involved weapons of some sort.

In addition, more than 100 synagogues were attacked, 59 community structures, including schools, were defaced, 89 cemeteries and monuments desecrated and 163 private properties vandalized.

The report noted an increase in harassment and violence in public places, especially near synagogues and Jewish schools. The report cites the example of the incident in Berlin where four men insulted a rabbi and threatened his daughter in a city street.

"The increase is clear. As a Jewish leader, I feel the danger to the communities, to people who walk the streets, to synagogues and to Jewish schools," Kantor said.

"It is important to do something not only on the national level but on the inter-European level, in the European Union nstitutions," he said.

The European Jewish Congress has contacted European Parliament President Martin Schulz calling for parliamentary action and surveillance of related developments.

Source: The European Jewish Press

Greek Jews Commemorate Auschwitz Deportation Anniversary

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Greece's second largest city Thessaloniki on Saturday commemorated the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of its Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Around one thousand people walked in a silent march to the old railway station where the first train left Greece's northern city for the notorious death camp on March 15, 1943.

Flowers were thrown onto the rails after the march, and the Thessaloniki Jewish Community Choir gave a performance.

Among the people taking part in the solemn walk was Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis, according to an AFP reporter.

Robert S. Lauder, who heads the World Jewish Congress, and Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, are also attending this weekend's anniversary events.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to address a commemoration ceremony on Sunday.

Thessaloniki, a multi-cultural city that served as a link between the Balkans and the East and which counted more than 50,000 Jews before World War II, today has a Jewish population of only about 1,000.

"The Jewish community is very small now and nobody believes it will be as big as it was," Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris told AFP.

"What we try to do is bring out the heritage... and not only the heritage of the Jews, but also of the Turks and the Greeks that have been living together here in peaceful coexistence," he added.

More than one million people, mostly European Jews, perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1940 to 1945.

Amid worry about the rise of Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, Jewish leaders from around the world have arrived in Thessaloniki to commemorate an event that decimated the Jewish population of the so-called "Jerusalem of the Balkans."

"Greek Jews are currently adversely affected by the country's deep economic problems and by the rise of the extremist Golden Dawn, a movement whose leaders openly deny the Holocaust," the World Jewish Congress said in a press release.

For the first time in Greek political history, the party elected 18 deputies to the country's 300-seat parliament after elections in June.

"The Golden Dawn are suing me because I have said it is a shame to have a Nazi party in parliament," Boutaris told AFP.

"The case is pending. But it is true that they don't respect democracy, they don't respect human beings and they don't have any place in society," he added.

Source: AFP

Paris Suburb Honors Israeli Minister's Assassin

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Bezons grants Majdi al-Rimawi, who murdered Rechavam Ze'evi, "honorary citizenship."

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has slammed the decision by Bezons, a suburb of Paris, to grant terrorist murderer Majdi al-Rimawi "honorary citizenship."

Al-Rimawi was sentenced by an Israeli court to life imprisonment plus 80 years for participating in the planning and murder of Israeli Minister Rechavam Zeevi in 2001. The inscription on the plaque prepared by the municipality of Bezons refers to Al-Rimawi as a "political prisoner."

“This is an outrageous and horrific decision, not just to honor a murderer, but the murderer of an Israeli government cabinet minister,” EJC President, Dr. Moshe Kantor, said. “Today is exactly a year since the terrible and tragic murder of Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse and the honoring of al-Rimawi in France demonstrates that murder and terrorism is being glorified when it should be condemned in all forms.”

�We call on the French authorities to immediately remove this stain on the French landscape out of respect for a friendly government, the people of France and tolerance.�

The Mayor of the city of Bezons, Dominique Lesparre, made a speech at the ceremony honoring Rimawi in which he justified the acts of the convicted terrorist murderer, calling him a "victim�.

�It is inconceivable that an elected figure can be so ignorant to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim,� Kantor said. �This is the kind of ignorance which leads to people like Mohammed Merah perpetrating the murder of children because they are Jewish. This type of glorification of murder is sending a very ominous message to the next Merah.�

Since the Toulouse murders a year ago, there has been an upswing in anti-Semitism in France with Jews physically assaulted across the country. The EJC said that it recognizes the strong reaction in the aftermath of last year’s Toulouse murders, and also commends the current government under President Hollande. However, more needs to be done to reduce anti-Semitic attacks in the year since the horrific events of March 11, 2012.

Source: Arutz Sheva

European Jewish Congress Slams Assassin's Honor

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) condemned, Monday, last month's decision by the Parisian suburb of Bezons to grant convicted Palestinian Authority assassin Majdi al-Rimawi "honorary citizenship". An EJC media release noted that "Al-Rimawi was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 80 years for participating in the planning and murder of Israeli Minister Rechav'am Ze'evi in 2001. The inscription on the plaque prepared by the municipality of Bezons refers to Al-Rimawi as a 'political prisoner'."

EJC President Moshe Kantor said “This is an outrageous and horrific decision, not just to honor a murderer, but the murderer of an Israeli government cabinet minister. Today is exactly a year since the terrible and tragic murder of Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse and the honoring of al-Rimawi in France demonstrates that murder and terrorism is being glorified when it should be condemned in all forms.” Referring to remarks by Bezons Mayor Dominique Lesparre at the ceremony conferring the honorary citizenship, Doctor Kantor added, “It is inconceivable that an elected figure can be so ignorant to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim. This is the kind of ignorance which leads to people like [Toulouse terrorist] Mohammed Merah perpetrating the murder of children because they are Jewish. This type of glorification of murder is sending a very ominous message to the next Merah.” He concluded, "This honor for terror dishonors Bezons and shames its mayor.�

Source: Arutz Sheva

EJC Calls On France to Condemn Honoring Murderer

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress slams French Mayor for granting "honorary citizenship" to terrorist who killed Jewish minister.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) is calling on French authorities to condemn the decision by Dominique Lesparre, mayor of the Paris suburb of Bezons, to grant honorary citizenship to Majdi al-Rimawi, one of four Palestinians responsible for the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

Bezons recognized Rimawi last month, according to the March edition of its official newsletter, Bezons Infos.

The Palestinian is currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor described the move as “outrageous and horrific.”

“It is inconceivable that an elected figure can be so ignorant to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim,” said Kantor in a statement.

�This is the kind of ignorance that leads to people like Mohammed Merah perpetrating the murder of children because they are Jewish,� he said. �This type of glorification of murder is sending a very ominous message to the next Merah.�

He was referring to a Muslim in the French city of Toulouse who killed four Jews, three of them children on March 19, 2012.

�After the murders in Toulouse we expected that it would have sent shock waves across France and would compel to finding ways of dealing with this threat,� Kantor added. �Unfortunately, the response was not felt strongly enough by those who attack Jews and other minorities.

They have not received the message that these attacks are unacceptable and will be met with zero-tolerance.�

Kantor insisted that �life goes on in Europe after events such as the Toulouse murders, but for the Jewish community life does not return to normal.� He stated that the honor Lesparre bestowed on Rimawi �dishonors Bezons and shames its mayor.�

The motion to recognize Rimawi passed unanimously at a special vote of the municipal council, according to the suburb’s official newsletter.

�He is imprisoned for more than 10 years [sic] in an Israeli prison,� proclaims the article.

�His crime? Defending his city and its inhabitants, calling for the application of international law for the establishment of Palestine in the 1967 borders as recognized by the United Nations, and Jerusalem as its capital. For this he was sentenced in 2002 [sic] to life in prison.... More than 80 years!� The article does not mention the 2008 conviction of Rimawi, a member of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for the assassination of Ze�evi in Jerusalem in October 2001.

Rimawi was one of four attackers.

Lesparre was quoted as calling the vote to honor Rimawi �a strong political act.�

An inscription on the plaque prepared by Bezons, which has a population of approximately 28,000, referred to him as a �political prisoner,� according to Palestinian Media Watch.

Patrick Noël, director of Lesparre�s office, cited a partnership program with a West Bank village.

�We are cooperating with the village of Wazbanized in Palestine, near Ramallah, from which Majdi al-Rimawi came and who is the husband of the former mayor, within the framework of our partnership with Palestine, and we are supporting the Palestinian cause because the occupation has lasted long enough. Palestinians are forced to live in ghettos in Gaza. We have given support to suffering peoples.�

Answering a question regarding the blood on Majdi�s hands, Noël answered: �De Gaulle and Jean Moulin committed some actions of resistance during Nazi occupation.�

He referred to an article published in Marianne, a left wing weekly, in which journalist Claude Askolovitch wrote that �to assassinate a man (Rehavam Ze�evi) who wants to deport your people can be interpreted as an action of preventative defense.�

Source: JPost.com

French Communist Mayor Honors Murderer Of Israeli Tourism Minister

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Dominique Lesparre is a Communist. He’s also the mayor of Bezons and with the country in an economic crisis, he used his authority to bestow honorary citizenship on the murderer of a former Israeli tourism minister.

Majdi Rahima Rimawi headed the PFLP terrorist team that murdered the 76-year-old Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi who was having breakfast with his wife in a hotel. And he also acted as getaway driver during that October 2001 attack.

Rimawi was captured five years later and claimed in his defense that Israel had no authority to try him because the murder had been carried out in East Jerusalem. That defense proved unconvincing and Majdi Rahima Rimawi was sentenced to 105 years in jail.

In February, Mayor Dominique Lesparre gave a speech calling Rimawi a “victim” and put up a plaque describing him as a “political prisoner.”

By Communist standards going to jail for shooting someone for political reasons does qualify you as a political prisoner, but that�s not the standard in normal civil society.

The President of the ECJ, Moshe Kantor, said that, �It is inconceivable that an elected official can be so ignorant as to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim.� But Dominique Lesparre defended his decision, saying it was part of a process of �wider� support for the Palestinian cause.

On his site, Lesparre described Rimawi as being �jailed for 10 years for taking part with his people in the struggle to resist the occupation of their country.� There is no mention of murdering a 76 year old man in a hotel.

Instead Lesparre blandly claims, �For these acts of resistance, he was jailed in 2002 for life + 80 years.� And not stopping there, Dominique Lesparre went on to praise all terrorists, included the murderers of unarmed women and children, in Israeli jails, as being �imprisoned for daring to defend their country.�

And Mayor Dominique Lesparre added that it is �urgent� to secure the release of the murderer of a 76-year-old man who was having breakfast with his wife.

�We ask the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to make every effort to facilitate his release, and those of his comrades,� Lesparre said.

As a member of the French Communist Party, Lesparre�s support for the PFLP is not surprising. And considering his political ambitions and France�s growing Muslim population, the normalization of political support for terrorism is to be expected.

Terrorism is widely accepted in the Muslim world. As France becomes more Muslim, it will also become more pro-terrorist. The cycle can only be reversed by ending further immigration to France.

Source: FrontPage Magazine

European Jewish Congress Slams French Award to Israeli Minister�s Killer

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) reacted with outrage to the news that a Paris suburb city has awarded honorary citizenship to the Palestinian murderer of an Israeli minister.

EJC President Moshe Kantor described the move to honour Majdi Rimawi, who plotted the murder of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001, with citizenship of Bezons as “outrageous and horrific”.

In a statement issued on the first anniversary of the murder of four Jews in Toulouse by Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah, he added that the decision “demonstrates that murder and terrorism are being glorified when it should be condemned in all forms”.

The municipality of Bezons near Paris, which is home to some 28,000 people, confirmed that a council meeting attended by 200 people on February 13 conferred the honour on Rimawi in a gesture of �solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have been without a state for 65 years and who lands have been occupied by Israel�. The ceremony followed an earlier meeting between representatives of the municipality and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

French dialy Le Parisien reported that Bezons has a sister agreement in place with the Palestinian village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, home to Rimawi’s family. In a published speech from the ceremony, the town�s Communist Party mayor Dominique Lesparre said Rimadi had �participated in the intifada, the struggle against the State of Israel�s violence�, in perpetrating what he characterised as an act of �defiance�.

Responding to the charge, Kantor insisted it was �inconceivable that an elected figure can be so ignorant to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim�. �This is the kind of ignorance which leads to people like Mohammed Merah perpetrating the murder of children because they are Jewish. This type of glorification of murder is sending a very ominous message to the next Merah,� he added.

�This honour for terror dishonours Bezons and shame its mayor,� he concluded.

Official literature distributed by the municipality further insisted that the imprisoned Rimadi�s �only crime in defending his city and homeland, and demanding adherence to international law and recognition of Palestine within the 1967 borders�. The convicted murder has so far served 10 of his 80 year prison sentence.

Rimadi�s wife, son and daughter reportedy attended the ceremony, which was held in the face of protests from city council member and right-wing UMP party member (former President Nicolas Sarkozy�s party) Olivier Regis, who accused the mayor of having �turned the council meeting into a political event�.

On Sunday, the Imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, told visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres that �we Muslims are victims like the Jews, of the same extremist who went on a journey of murder, who took the lives of children�, in a reference to the killings in a Jewish school by a radical Islamist in March 2012. �We are here to say to our brothers the Jews and the French: We are all threatened by terror, hurt by terror and we all call with optimism for peace at the end of this terrible year,� he added.

Of the conflation of the Middle East conflict with anti-Semitism in Europe, the Imam, who himself led a delegation of 17 Muslim leaders to Jerusalem earlier this year, said: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not an excuse to hate the State of Israel – we are not interested in that hate and do not believe in it. We visited Israel and saw the country; we want to know Israel as it really is and to get to know people from different perspectives."

Source: European Jewish Press

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor Receives Italy's Highest Award

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The President of the European Jewish Congress received Italy’s highest award, according to press reports in Italy.

At a meeting this week, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor, was honored with the Knight of the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, presented by Terzi on behalf of the absent President Giorgio Napolitano, in recognition of his efforts to promote human rights and inter-religious dialogue.

He also received the award for his work in combating xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe.

Also present at the ceremony were dignitaries, including Deputy Chairman of the Common Foreign and Community Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Fiamma Nirenstein and Honorable Alessandro Ruben.

Napolitano was honored last Friday for his own efforts to combat anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League while he was on a state visit to Washington. While awarding the outgoing statesman with the award, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman greeted his unwavering, uncompromising and unequivocal stance against the evil of anti-Semitism.

Source: Yourjewishnews.com

European Jewish Congress President Receives Top Italian Award

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Dr. Mosher Kantor asks for Italy's help in having Hezbollah listed by EU as terrorist organization

Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, was awarded the highest decoration to a non-Italian by Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano.

Kantor was given the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic award for his work in promoting tolerance and reconciliation, human rights and interfaith dialogue, and his struggle against anti-Semitism and racism, according to a press statement released by the EJC.

“It is an honor to receive this award from the Italian President and I am happy that those who work towards a peaceful and tolerant Europe are being recognized in such a manner,” Kantor said of the award. “I hope awards like this will incentivize more effort towards making our continent a better place and living up to the ideals as laid out in the European Union Charter.”

Kantor met Tuesday with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata together with a delegation of World Jewish Congress leadership, including WJC President Ronald Lauder, Latin American Jewish Congress President Jack Terpins, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress President Vadim Shulman, WJC Governing Board Chairman Eduardo Elsztain and leaders of the Italian Jewish Community.

During the meeting, the Italian foreign minister, on behalf of the Italian president, granted Kantor the award.

�I am truly humbled by this honor and it is a testament to the never-ending search for true tolerance and peace,� Kantor, who is also co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, said. �However, this is an uphill battle as the specter of hatred and racism is regaining a political foothold in Europe and to fight for tolerance we have to display deep and unequivocal intolerance to the intolerant.�

�Too often society allows room for hate, a hearing for racism and a podium for intolerance.� Kantor continued.

At the meeting, Kantor asked for Italy’s help in adding Hezbollah to the European Union's list of proscribed terrorist groups in the wake of the evidence demonstrating that the Lebanese-based organization was behind the murder of Israeli tourists in Burgas last year.

Sant'Agata spoke about the importance of Italy’s relationship with Israel and the Jewish community. �The security of Israel has always been one of my priorities and I admire the commitment of the Jewish State to democracy and human rights,� the Italian foreign minister said. �Our very good relations with the Italian Jewish Community are also dear to my heart.�

Kantor has previously been awarded the Belgian Order of Leopold, the French National Order of the Legion of Honour and the Polish Order of Merit and Medal �Deserved for Tolerance� for his contribution towards tolerance and reconciliation.

Source: Haaretz

Bulgarian FM Urges EU to Stop Hezbollah

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Sofia urges European Union to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist group and make effort to stop further attacks

The European Union should take collective action against Hezbollah, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov said on Monday morning.

He spoke with reporters as he walked into a meeting of his counterparts in Brussels to brief them on an initial investigative Bulgarian report that blamed the terrorist group for the bombing last July that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver outside his country’s Burgas airport.

“We believe the attack that happened in Burgas last year was organized by people connected to the military wing of Hezbollah,” Mladenov said.

“We in Europe need to take collective measures to make sure that such attacks will never happen again on EU soil, that we are protected as the EU,” he continued.

�We must send a strong message to the rest of the world, that activities like this are unacceptable, no matter where they are planned or executed.�

Mladenov seemed puzzled when a reporter asked if Israel or the United States had pressured the Bulgarian government to target Hezbollah.

�Nobody has an interest in putting pressure on us,� he said. �We came to these conclusions because of our own investigation, and we stand firmly behind them.�

Israel and the US have asked Europe to take a stronger stand against Hezbollah, including putting it on a list of terrorist organizations.

But to date, the EU has made only lukewarm statements about the organization and its link to a terrorist attack in Bulgaria, which is one of the 27 EU nations.

In the wake of the report, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said only that the matter should be studied.

As she walked into the council meeting Monday morning, the bulk of which was scheduled to deal with Syria, she said that she would listen carefully to what Bulgaria had to say.

The EU foreign ministers did not issue a statement on Hezbollah once their meeting adjourned.

A bipartisan group of 111 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Ashton and the EU on Monday urging the body to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Members also sent a letter of solidarity to Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov as he continues his investigation into Hezbollah’s links to the bombing.

�We fear that failure to add Hezbollah to the terror list will allow, perhaps even encourage, the terror organization to exploit the lack of unity in the European Union member states, and attempt to launch additional attacks on civilians,� stated the congressmen�s letter to Ashton.

They were referring to different policies toward Hezbollah adopted by various European countries.

The letter also warned that �if Hezbollah�s ability to maintain fund-raising networks in Europe remains intact, this threatens to undermine the European Union�s significant efforts toward Middle East peace.�

The authors noted that their letter on Monday follows up on a similar call made in the fall of last year, after the bombing but before evidence had been presented that Hezbollah was behind the attack.

�There is now a clear imperative for action,� the letter maintained. �Hezbollah�s actions in Europe must be met with a response to prevent further attacks in Europe and around the world.�

�Calling Hezbollah what it is – a terrorist organization – is long overdue, but it�s better late than never,� said Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, one of the chief sponsors of the EU letter.

�This designation could help cripple Hezbollah�s operations in Europe and around the world, making it more difficult for them to sow instability and target innocent people.�

On Sunday, US President Barack Obama�s national security adviser, Thomas Donilon, also called on the EU to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

�Now that Bulgarian authorities have exposed Hezbollah�s global terrorist agenda, European governments must respond swiftly,� he wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

�They must disrupt its operational networks, stop flows of financial assistance to the group, crack down on Hezbollah- linked criminal enterprises and condemn the organization�s leaders for their continued pursuit of terrorism.�

He applauded European countries that have already condemned Hezbollah for the bombing, but continued, �Europe must now act collectively and respond resolutely to this attack within its borders by adding Hezbollah to the European Union�s terrorist list.�

�That is the next step toward ensuring that Burgas is the last successful Hezbollah operation on European soil,� Donilon stressed.

Members of Congress and multiple US administrations have called on the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group. American officials are hoping that evidence that the group perpetrated an attack on European soil will make the EU more willing to add it to its blacklist.

European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor said he was disappointed by the EU�s failure to take a stand against Hezbollah.

�It is very hard to find any reason other than the fact that this issue has been inexcusably politicized,� he said.

�A terrorist attack took place on European soil and the brazen perpetrators are being ignored. This sends a very worrying signal to global terrorist groups that they will be able to act with immunity and impunity.�

Source: Jerusalem Post

EJC 'Deeply Concerned' by EU Continued Failure to Proscribe Hezbollah

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said he was "deeply disappointed" that the EU Foreign Ministers failed to label Hezbollah a terrorist group in the wake of the recent confirmation that the Lebanon-based group was involved in the bus bombing which killed six people in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July 2012.

“It is deeply disappointing and inexplicable that the EU Foreign Affairs Council is continuing to prevaricate over a decision proscribing Hezbollah particularly since the Bulgarian government confirmed evidence proving Hezbollah was behind the murderous terror attacks which took place in Burgas during July last year,” Kantor said in a statement.

“It is very hard to find any reason other than the fact that this issue has been inexcusably politicized," he added.

During a Council meeting in Brussels, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov presented the results of the investigation into the Burgas bus bombing.

Only two EU countries currenly label Hezbollah a terrorist organization—Britain and UK and the Netherlands.

The UK blacklists only the military wing of the Shiite organization despite its own claims that there are no differences between the military, political and social wings of Hezbollah.

�While the foreign ministers were clear in their condemnation of the violence in Syria, they once again ignored the clear involvement of Iran and its terrorist client Hezbollah in the regional conflict which they are all too willing to spread on to the European continent,� Kantor said.

�This sends a very troubling message to those seeking peace and democracy in the region and once again casts doubt on the important role of the European Union in the Middle East peace process.� The" EJC called on the EU "to immediately and unequivocally add Hezbollah to the list of proscribed terrorist organizations."

"Peace will only arrive in the region when its people feel safe from terror and terrorist organizations are prevented from their actions to randomly murder citizens both in Europe and in the Middle East," Kantor said.

Source: European Jewish Press

EU Reluctant to Blacklist Hezbollah after Probe

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Counter-terrorism expert says Bulgarian report on bus bomb won't lead European leaders to brand Lebanese group as terrorists, in spite of the evidence convicting Hezbollah of involvement in attack on European soil.

In his many years of service for France’s spy agency, Claude Moniquet has seen much evidence linking Hezbollah to terrorist-related activities in Europe and beyond.

The attacks, says Moniquet, a 20-year veteran of the DGSE intelligence service, go back as far as 1983, to the bombing of military barracks in Beirut that killed nearly 300 people, including 58 French soldiers.

So Moniquet believes that Bulgaria's announcement this week that it concluded Hezbollah was behind the July 18 bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian national at the Burgas airport won't necessarily lead European leaders to join the United States in branding the Lebanese group as a terrorist organization.

“Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s government,” said Moniquet, the founder of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a Brussels-based think tank. “Calling it terrorist would limit France�s ties with Beirut and put French targets and personnel in Lebanon at risk of retaliation. The Bulgarian report doesn�t alter this realpolitik. There were always plenty of smoking guns.”

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told reporters Tuesday that the attack in the Black Sea city last summer was financed by Hezbollah and carried out by at least two members of the group's military wing - one carrying an Australian passport, the other a Canadian one.

The results of the Bulgarian investigation led some to speculate that the European Union, unable to ignore an attack on the soil of a member state, would be compelled to designate the group a terrorist organization, a move with potentially wide-reaching implications for Hezbollah's ability to raise money on the continent. But European officials thus far have been noncommittal.

Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, took "note of the results of the investigation," adding that it required further "reflection." And the union's top counterterrorism official, Gilles de Kerchove, told a Belgian news agency that being behind a terrorist attack did not automatically result in a terrorist designation.

�It's not only the legal requirement you have to take into consideration, it's also a political assessment of the context and the timing,� de Kerchove said.

While the refusal to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group is widespread in Europe, France is considered to be a major impediment to any changes. Lebanon is a former French colony, many French soldiers serve in the country under U.N. auspices, and there is extensive trade and cultural exchange between the two countries.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said he would use an already scheduled meeting this week with French President President Francois Hollande to press him on the issue.

Hezbollah already is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Australia, Canada and Israel. The Netherlands, alone among European countries, declared in 2008 that it considered Hezbollah to be a terrorist group. The Dutch foreign minister said the Bulgarian investigation proves its decision is correct and called on fellow E.U. states to reconsider their positions. Britain considers only Hezbollah�s �military wing� a terrorist group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed that distinction in his reaction to the Bulgarian findings, noting that he hoped Europe would finally draw the right conclusions about Hezbollah.

"There is only one Hezbollah, a single organization with the same leadership," Netanyahu said.

The Bulgarian investigation traced a money trail leading from Hezbollah�s military wing, which perpetrated the attack, to Hezbollah�s leadership in Lebanon. That revelation could make the British distinction between Hezbollah's political and military activities harder to defend.

�It implicates the much bigger financial structure that facilitated the attack,� said Nuno Wahnon Martins, director of European Affairs at B'nai B'rith. �[It] means Hezbollah�s entire drug-smuggling and money-laundering operations are serving the organization�s terrorist activities.�

Like other Eastern European countries, Bulgaria tends to be more closely aligned with U.S. foreign policy than countries in the West. Moniquet attributed the country's �courageous� statement this week to precisely that inclination, and to the fact that it has fewer strategic interests in Lebanon.

European Jewish groups recognize the the tangle of interests at play in Europe, but generally have little sympathy for it. European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said the decision to label Hezbollah a terrorist group �should not be subject to political considerations but whether proscribing Hezbollah will hinder its continuing efforts to murder innocent civilians.�

Analysts say a European lifeline is crucial for Hezbollah, which holds several seats in the Lebanese parliament. Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch lawmaker and author of a book on Hamas, says Europe is Hezbollah's �money laundromat and piggy bank.�

David Suurland, a lecturer at Leiden University�s school of law and an expert on radical Islam, believes the Bulgarian report can be used by jurists to force the E.U. into severing ties with Hezbollah-affiliated bodies, including the Lebanese government. This, in turn, could remove incentives to shield the terrorist group from being labeled as such, Suurland said, since it would violate a number of international treaties.

It also would violate the 2002 bilateral trade agreement between Europe and Lebanon. Article 2 of the pact states that the relationship is �based on democratic principles and fundamental human rights� -- not Hezbollah�s forte, Kortenoeven says.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Hezbollah Carried Out the Burgas Bus Bombing that Killed 5 Israeli Tourists and the Bulgarian Driver

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, was responsible for the bombing of a bus filled with Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, last year, the Bulgarian authorities announced Tuesday.

The attack on July 18, 2012 was carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, in the first major announcement on the investigation’s findings, said one of the suspects entered the country with a Canadian passport, and another with one from Australia.

"We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the military wing of Hezbollah," Tsvetanov said at a press conference in Sofia after a meeting of Bulgaria's National Security Council. "We expect the government of Lebanon to assist in the further investigation."

Iran-backed Hezbollah has been linked to attacks and kidnappings on Israeli and Jewish interests around the world.

The bomb exploded as the bus took a group of Israeli tourists from the airport to their hotel in Burgas. The blast also killed the suspected bomber, a tall and lanky pale-skinned man wearing a baseball cap and dressed like a tourist.

The bomb was detonated remotely using a circuit board.

Although it was initially believed to be a suicide bombing, experts said investigators believe the bomber never intended to die.

Two counterfeit U.S. driver's licenses that were found near the bombing scene were traced back to Lebanon, where they were made.

The Bulgarian announcement puts pressure on the European Union to reconsider whether to list the group as a terrorist organisation.It would render illegal any financial transfer from the EU to Hezbollah or any member of that organization.

Bulgaria is a member of the EU.

But the Bulgarians have been facing pressure from European allies like Germany and France, which regard Hezbollah as a “legitimate” political organization. France especially has reportedly blocked any decision on this issue given its historic kinks with Lebanon.

Consensus is needed among the 27 EU member states on a decision to outlaw Hezbollah.

After the Burgas bus bombing, Israel put pressure on the EU to blacklist Hezbollah but Cyprus Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou- Marcoullis, whose country at the time held the EU’s rotating presidency, said there was non consensus among the EU members, stressing the fact that Hezbollah "is an organisation that comprises a political party and a social services network, as well as an armed wing. It is active in Lebanese politics, including the parliament and the government, and plays a specific role with regard to the status quo in Lebanon."

But she then added : "Should there be tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terrorism, the EU would consider listing the organization."

Over the weekend, US Ambassador-at-large Daniel Benjamin criticised the European Union for refusing to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Speaking at a conference in London, Benjamin, who is the coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, described Hezbollah's legal status in the EU as "undermining security goals" pursued by the US and its allies.

The EU�s top counter-terrorism official, Gilles de Kerchove, was recently quoted as saying that the European Union may not designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization, even if it turns out that the group was behind the terrorist attack in Bulgaria against EU nationals on EU soil.

Whilst the Netherlands declared Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation in 2004, saying it does not differentiate between its political and terrorist wings, Britain does distinguish between the different elements, and has crucially only outlawed its military wing. And in September, London urged the European Union to follow its example.

Hezbollah is also believed to to be responsible – as an Iran proxy - for several terror attacks around the world, including the infamous 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and injured several dozens others, as well the attack on the Israeli Embassy in the Argentinian capital two years earlier . The bombing killed 29 people and wounded several hundred.

Hezbollah, which was created in 1982, launched attacks against the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon and its military barracks in 1983, resulting in the murder of 258 Americans.

Israel also said that Iran and Hezbollah plotted to carry out more than 20 attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets over the past two years, in various countries including in Turkey, India, Thailand, Georgia.

Last year, in Cyprus, another EU country, a Lebanese was arrested by the Cypriot police. He reportedly admitted to be a member of Hezbollah and to be preparing an attack on Israeli tourists on the Mediterranean island. The investigation is still going on.

Following the Bulgarian announcement, European Jewish Congress (EJC) President, Moshe Kantor, called on the EU "to immediately add Hezbollah to the official list of designated terrorist organizations."

“There should be no more equivocation, Hezbollah should be added to the EU�s officially group of terrorist organizations without delay or reservation,” Kantor said.

"This decision should not be subject to political considerations, but whether proscribing Hezbollah will hinder its continuing efforts to murder innocent civilians in Europe and around the world.�

European Jewish Press

Murdoch Apologises for 'Grotesque' Sunday Times Cartoon

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has apologised for a Sunday Times cartoon that drew harsh criticism from Jewish groups for its depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon. FROM @RUPERTMURDOCH ON TWITTER: (about 11 hours ago)

The cartoon depicts Prime Minister Netanyahu paving a wall with the blood and limbs of Palestinians. The caption reads: Israeli elections - will cementing peace continue?

The cartoon, by Gerald Scarfe, was published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an elected group representing Jewish people in the UK, said it had complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the cartoon published on Sunday.

The image has caused outrage in Israel. The parliament's speaker Reuven Rivlin wrote to his British counterpart John Bercow to complain, according to local media reports. He said:

For the people of Israel, this is a cartoon which recalls the dark journalism from one of humankind's darkest periods,

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said the cartoon was "sickening" and demanded an apology. He told the World Jewish Congress: This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset. This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.

Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens defended the cartoon, telling the Jerusalem Post insulting the memory of Holocaust victims was the "last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance."

The Sunday Times released a statement saying the timing of the cartoon was because of the recent election.

This is a typically robust cartoon by Gerald Scarfe. It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appeared yesterday because Mr Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week.

Tony Blair expressed his "sharp reservations" about the content and timing of the cartoon, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's office.

Source: ITV News

Ministry Report: Attacks against Jews on the Rise

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Diaspora Affairs Ministry issues new report, indicating radicalism is responsible for new wave of anti-Semitism in Europe.

There has been “an alarming rise in the number of attacks against Jewish targets” over the past year, according to a new report issued by the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry on Sunday.

The 2012 report on anti-Semitism, which was presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein during Sunday’s cabinet meeting, indicated that the confluence of extreme rightwing political movements and Islamic radicalism have been responsible for a new wave of anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe.

The report’s release was timed to coincide with the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday.

Based on data collected by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, Edelstein noted that “the main conclusion emerging from the document... is that compared to 2011, there was an escalation in violent incidents against Jews around the world.”

While the claimed surge in anti-Semitic incidents is connected to incitement against Israel, the report admitted, it also claimed that there was no direct correlation between any specific actions or policies taken by the State of Israel and the rising violence.

The report noted that, �contrary to expectations,� the level of anti-Semitic incidents did not spike after last year�s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, as it did after 2009�s Cast Lead incursion.

Edelstein also noted that a �preliminary analysis of trends� indicates that Israeli policy �does not constitute the main incentive for anti- Semitic actions against Jews.�

Delegitimization of Israel does play a role in fueling anti-Jewish activity, he said, but �Israeli policies will not affect or reduce these effects of racial hatred against Jews.�

The worst increase in anti- Semitism was seen in Western Europe, according to the report, which listed a number of incidents in France and Germany, including the bombing of a grocery store in Sarcelles, France and the shooting deaths of four Jews at the Otsar HaTorah religious school in Toulouse.

Many synagogues in France are now surrounded by high concrete walls and receive special police security details on major holidays. It is also common for Jews in many French cities to remove their kippot for safety reasons when walking outside.

The ministry�s report also detailed the rise of anti-Semitic political movements in eastern and southern Europe, including the Golden Dawn party in Greece and the Jobbik party in Hungary. Most anti-Semitic incidents, it claimed, were either motivated by far-right political ideologies or by those affiliated with radical Islam.

Figures published by the French Jewish communal organization SPCJ – Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive – in October, the report further noted, show that the number of incidents that occurred in France in 2011 was 45 percent higher than in the previous year.

Edelstein also said that anti- Semitic conspiracy theories have found fertile ground online and that Arab anti-Semitism remains prominent, although it has not seen a marked increase.

A 2011 paper on anti-Semitism produced by the Kantor Center stated that while there was an increase in the intensity of violent incidents against Jews in 2011, the total number of such events worldwide during that year fell from 614 to 446.

The report said France was the leading country for anti-Semitic incidents with 114 reported in 2011, followed closely by the UK with 105. Canada and Australia reported 68 and 30, respectively.

Dina Porat, head of the Kantor Center and the chief historian at Yad Vashem, noted that �there was in 2012 � compared to 2011 and 2010, which were two years in which we witnessed quite a substantial decline � a rise [in anti-Semitism], but I�d like emphasize that we in the Kantor Center have not yet summarized the actual figures.�

These figures, she said, will be published prior to Israel�s Holocaust Remembrance Day in April.

�It is not about numbers, but about tendencies,� she told The Jerusalem Post.

�We can see that that even though we don�t have the actual, summed-up figures, we do see that there is a rise.�

In tracking anti-Semitism over a period of years, Porat noted, she has seen that �the rise and decline of anti-Semitism is mainly connected to problems within Europe.�

Anti-Semitic incidents in Western and Central Europe, she said, �are not necessarily [connected] to the Middle East or to the Palestinian-Israel conflict or to Israel�s conduct. They emanate from political, social and economic problems.�

In response to the report by the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor stated that �anti- Semitism in Europe is reaching a tipping point, where certain Jewish communities on the European continent are in danger.

We are also gravely concerned that the political rise of neo-Nazi parties in Europe has given racists and anti-Semites a certain level of impunity. This coupled with the rise of anti- Israel delegitimization on the Left, and among extreme Muslim communities, is creating an explosive cocktail for European Jews.�

The EJC, he stated, is working to formulate �a plan with senior EU and European officials to increase education, policing and action to stem the rise of hatred against the Jews.�

After being briefed on the report, Netanyahu told his cabinet that, �In the perspective of the almost 75 years that have passed since the Holocaust, what has not changed is the desire to annihilate the Jews.�

What has changed, he noted, was the �ability of the Jews to defend themselves.�

The prime minister also asserted that �nobody will defend the Jews if they are not ready to defend themselves; this is another lesson of the Holocaust.

It is impossible to rely on separate and independent action to defend the Jews if the Jews will not defend themselves.�

Referring to Iran, Netanyahu stated that �the root of the issue today, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is not what happened, but how we can prevent it from happening again.

This depends on the ability and the determination of the state of the Jews to defend itself against those who would destroy it.�

Source: Jerusalem Post

Jewish Groups Slam U.K.'S Sunday Times for Publishing 'Jewish Blood Libel' Cartoon on Holocaust Day

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Cartoon depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall on top of Palestinians with their blood standing in for cement.

The European Jewish Congress on Sunday demanded that the Sunday Times apologize for publishing a cartoon depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall on top of Palestinians with their blood standing in for cement.

The uproar that erupted over the cartoon was particularly offensive due to its publication on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, a democratically-elected representative organization of European Jewry, condemned the contents of the picture and the timing of its publication:

“This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset,” Dr. Kantor said. “This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.”

�Amazingly, as this cartoon was published days after the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel, underwent fully democratic elections, as others in the Middle East were being butchered by the tens of thousands, the Sunday Times focuses its imagination solely on the Jewish State. This contravenes many of the criteria laid out in EUMC’s Working Definition of Antisemitism and is part of a worrying trend to legitimize the growing assault on Israel by opinion-shapers.�

The Anti-Defamation League also condemned The Sunday Times, calling upon the newspaper to apologize for its "gross insensitivity" for publishing "a cartoon with a blatantly anti-Semitic theme and motif which is a modern day evocation of the ancient ‘blood libel� charge leveled at Jews."

Speaking to The Algemeiner, ADL International Affairs Director Michael A. Salberg added, �This is the stuff which historically justified hatred of Jews and led to the wholesale slaughter of Jews.�

Memorial services were held worldwide on Sunday to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The United Nations in 2005 designated January 27 as a yearly memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust - 6 million Jews and millions of other victims of Nazi Germany during World War II. The day was chosen because it falls on the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of Auschwitz, the Nazis' most notorious death camp and a symbol of the evil inflicted across the continent.

Source: Haaretz

Sunday Times Publishes Stürmer-Type Cartoon

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Cartoon of Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of Arabs, using blood as cement, appears on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor called for an apology Sunday from Britain's Sunday Times, which published a cartoon of Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of Arabs. The cartoon, which appears on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, depicts the blood of the Arabs as cement.

Many observers found the cartoon reminiscent of blood libels against Jews, and noted a similarity to anti-Semitic cartoons published by Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer in the leadup to the Holocaust.

"This contravenes many of the criteria laid out in EUMC’s Working Definition of Antisemitism and is part of a worrying trend to legitimize the growing assault on Israel by opinion-shapers,� Kantor said.

Source: Arutz Sheva

EJC: Sunday Times Cartoon 'Sickening'

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor has called for an apology from the Sunday Times, which published a cartoon on International Holocaust Remembrance Day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of Palestinians, depicting their blood as cement.

“This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset,” Dr. Kantor said.

“This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.

"This contravenes many of the criteria laid out in EUMC’s Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and is part of a worrying trend to legitimize the growing assault on Israel by opinion-shapers," Kantor concluded.

The European Jewish Congress is the democratically-elected representative organization of European Jewry.

Source: Ynetnews

'Sunday Times' Posts Israel Cartoon on Holocaust Day

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

On Holocaust Memorial Day, British weekly publishes cartoon depicting big-nosed Netanyahu paving wall with Palestinian blood, limbs.

The Sunday Times marked Holocaust Memorial Day in a less-than-traditional manner, running a virulently anti-Israel cartoon depicting a big-nosed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu paving a wall with the blood and limbs of writhing Palestinians.

The cartoon included a caption beneath the image entitled "Israeli elections- will cementing peace continue?" Drawn by Gerald Scarfe, the cartoon appeared in the national paper on Sunday.

“This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset,” said European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor. “This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.”

The Sunday Times defended its cartoon in response to charges of anti-Semitism. "This is a typically robust cartoon by Gerald Scarfe,� a spokesman for the weekly said. �The Sunday Times firmly believes that it is not anti-Semitic. It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people."

The publication added that the cartoon appeared on Sunday because that was its first issue since Netanyahu won reelection, and reiterated that it opposes anti-Semitism in all its forms.

British anti-Semitism has made headlines throughout the week after Liberal Democrat MP David Ward accused �the Jews� of inflicting violence on Palestinians on a daily basis,� and questioned how they could do this so soon after their �liberation from the death camps.�

He issued something of a backtrack on Saturday evening, in response to condemnation from his party and a huge backlash on social media. �I was trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust,� the MP posted on his website.

�I recognize of course the deep sensitivities of these issues at all times, and particularly on occasions of commemoration such as this weekend [Holocaust Memorial Day],� he said.

He added that his criticisms of Israel �remain as strong as ever.�

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton paid a special tribute to Holocaust survivors on Sunday, in a statement released on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Ashton said that the survivors of the Holocaust "remind us of this tragedy that we must never forget."

Source: Jerusalem Post

Scarfe "Regrets Timing" of Sunday Times Netanyahu Cartoon

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe says that he "very much regrets" the timing of his controversial depiction of Benjamin Netanyahu in this weekend's Sunday Times.

Mr Scarfe, in a message to the JC denying permission to reproduce the cartoon, said that he had not been aware it was Holocaust Memorial Day.

The newspaper itself, meanwhile, has defended the inclusion of a cartoon about Israel condemned as a "blood libel" on the same day as Britain marked Holocaust Memorial Day.

The drawing depicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crushing Palestinian victims between the cracks of a blood-splattered wall.

The cartoon appeared with the heading: "Israeli Elections - Will Cementing Peace Continue?".

Media monitor Honest Reporting said it amounted to "a blood libel on a day when the millions of victims of the Holocaust are remembered", while Rabbi Yitzhak Schochet of Mill Hill Synagogue urged the newspaper to "retract that vile piece of anti s emitism and apologise to your readership and affected communities".

"This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset," said the president of the European Jewish Congress. President Moshe Kantor said such "insensitivity" should warrant an immediate apology from both Mr Scarfe and the editor of the paper.

In a statement, the paper said it was a typically robust cartoon by Mr Scarfe, and directed readers to a Sunday Times magazine feature published in the same edition exposing "the Holocaust-denying tours of concentration camps organised by David Irving".

"The Sunday Times firmly believes that it is not antisemitic," said a spokesman. "It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appeared on Sunday because Mr Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week."

Source: The Jewish Chronicle

EJC Demands Apology from Sunday Times for 'Sickening' Cartoon

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The EJC has demanded an apology from the Sunday Times for its abhorrent cartoon depicting PM Netanyahu building a wall on Arab bodies.

The European Jewish Congress has demanded an apology from the Sunday Times for its abhorrent cartoon that depicted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of ‘Palestinians’, portraying their blood as cement.

Illustrated by Gerald Scarfe and published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the cartoon includes a caption stating: "Israeli elections - will cementing peace continue?"

“This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset,” said President of the European Jewish Congress, Dr. Moshe Kantor. “This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.”

"This contravenes many of the criteria laid out in EUMC�s [The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia] Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and is part of a worrying trend to legitimize the growing assault on Israel by opinion-shapers," Kantor concluded

The Commentator, which first reported the abhorrent cartoon, wrote that while International Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorated on January 27, is a day to remember the six million Jews who were brutally murdered during the Holocaust, it is being transfigured �into a day that ‘the Jews� or �Israel� (for they will use these terms interchangeably), are to be attacked or set up, completely leaving behind the idea that the country came into existence in the wake of the greatest single crime in history.�

�The cartoon will be defended as fair comment about Israel�s security fence that the Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders depict as a war crime,� writes Jonathan Tobin of Commentary Magazine. �That this strictly defensive measure was made necessary by the Palestinians� campaign of suicide bombings that cost the lives of a thousand Jews in the last decade goes unmentioned.�

�The willingness of Israel-bashers to appropriate the Holocaust to promote a new generation of anti-Semitic imagery is rooted in a worldview in which the actions of the Palestinians, or their consistent refusal to make peace, are irrelevant,� Tobin explains. �If even a fence to keep out suicide bombers can be seen as criminal then it is obvious that no terrorist outrage or act of hateful incitement (such as the Egyptian president�s belief that Israelis are the �descendants of apes and pigs�) is worthy of censure so long as Israelis are standing up for themselves and refusing to be slaughtered as the Jews of Europe were 70 years ago.�

�The point is most Israelis have long given up on the Palestinians, whom they rightly understand to be light years away from the sort of sea change that would allow them to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish State no matter where its borders were drawn. So, too, do they no longer listen to a Europe where blood libels like the Sunday Timescartoon are seen as commonplace and just a more sophisticated version of Morsi�s hate speech,� he continues.

�Israel is not perfect and its politicians can be criticized,� writes Tobin. �But this commemoration of Europe�s Holocaust Memorial Day with such slanders shows the inability of those who believe Israel has no right to exist or to defend itself to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian dispute without resorting to imagery like that of the cartoon or Morsi�s imprecations. Though Israel-bashers claim labeling them as anti-Semites is unfair, their reflexive use of Nazi-like blood libels illustrates the link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism better than any argument their opponents can muster.�

Source: Arutz Sheva

Rupert Murdoch Sorry Over 'Grotesque' Sunday Times Israeli Cartoon

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rupert Murdoch tonight issued a public apology over a “grotesque” Sunday Times cartoon after the newspaper was accused of anti-semitism.

Amid a storm of global condemnation, the 81 year-old media mogul offered the “major apology”, for what he described as an �offensive cartoon� published in one of his major newspapers.

His apology on Twitter came despite the Sunday newspaper launching a staunch defence of the work by leading political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, 76.

The cartoon, which depicted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, building a wall using what appeared to be the blood of Palestinians as cement, was published at the weekend, in the first full edition presided over by Martin Ivens, the new acting editor.

Jewish leaders said the cartoon, published on Holocaust Memorial Day with a caption: �Israel Elections: Will cementing peace continue?�, was anti-Semitic.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews complained to the Press Complaints Commission, arguing the cartoon, was �shockingly reminiscent� of pictures used in �the virulently anti-Semitic Arab press�.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now serves as Middle East peace envoy, expressed "sharp reservations" about the drawings, a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.

Tonight the Australian-born News Corporation founder apologised, hours after stating that �what I have to say about Sunday Times cartoon will not be on Twitter. Sorry�.

But later in a post to more than 400,000 followers, Mr Murdoch said: �Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of The Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe [a] major apology for [the] grotesque, offensive cartoon.�

Jewish leaders saw a theme of "blood libel," the persistent myth that Jews secretly use human blood in their religious rituals.

Their anger was heightened over the cartoon being published on a day meant to commemorate the communities destroyed by the Nazis and their allies in the mid-20th century.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, said: "This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset."

Israel's parliamentary speaker, Reuven Rivlin, wrote in a letter to his British counterpart John Bercow: "For the people of Israel, this is a cartoon which recalls the dark journalism from one of humankind's darkest periods."

Mr Ivens will meet leading figures in Britain’s Jewish community tomorrow to apologise "face to face" in an attempt to stem the backlash.

A source at News International, the newspaper's publiser told The Daily Telegraph tonight: "Scarfe has been with the paper for more than 44 years and his stuff is well known for being hard hitting at times.

"But some sort of line has been crossed over."

In a statement released through NI, Mr Ivens said: "The last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah or invoking the blood libel.

�The paper has long written strongly in defence of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist.

�We are, however, reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon and I will of course bear them very carefully in mind in future."

A NI spokesman added tonight: "He [Mr Ivens] will acknowledge that the cartoon was of bad taste and was of extremelly bad timing. He will apologise for any offence caused."

The newspaper had earlier defended the cartoon prior to Mr Murdoch’s tweet, claiming it was �typically robust� and denying that it was anti-Semitic.

"The Sunday Times firmly believes that it is not antisemitic," it said.

"It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appeared on Sunday because Mr Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week."

Scarfe, one of Britain�s best-known cartoonists whose career with the Sunday Times stretches back to the 1960s, often makes use of blood in his cartoons.

The NI spokesman declined to say if he would face disciplinary action or would continue drawing for the newspaper.

The veteran cartoonist, who has also designed artwork for film, theatre and opera and opening credits of the BBC's comedy Yes Minister, tonight said he "very much" regretted the timing of his cartoon.

But he added to the Jewish Chronicle that he had not been aware it was Holocaust Memorial Day.

��: Telegraph.co.uk

Holocaust Memorial to Become Official EP Event. No room for anti-Semitism in the EU, declares EP President

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

It all started nine years ago in January 2005, when the European Coalition for Israel, together with MEP Hannu Takkula, hosted the first Holocaust Remembrance Day event in the European Parliament in Brussels, to honour victims of the Holocaust. On Tuesday night, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, announced that International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been declared an official European Parliament event which will continue to be commemorated in the European Parliament, regardless of who is president. The EP presidency rotates every five years, but has in latter years been divided into two and half year periods. All the last three presidents have been personally committed to honouring the victims of the Holocaust, but there are other elected members who are more critical.

”There is no room for anti-Semitism in the European Union” Schulz stated on Tuesday night at the 9th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in the European Parliament. He added: There are those elected members, in national parliaments, as well as in the European Parliament, who call the Holocaust a myth or a detail of history, but they are a small minority.

�The great majority of the elected members will not tolerate open denial of the Shoah. If that happens we will simply point them to the door�, he promised in his speech.

Last year President Schulz announced that his first effort as president was to ban Holocaust denial in the European Parliament.

Whereas the President of the European Parliament focused on the rise of anti-Semitism and intolerance in Europe, the Jewish speakers also expressed their concern over the current nuclear threat to Israel.

�We cannot tolerate the fact that a lunatic who denies the very existence of the Holocaust can acquire a nuclear bomb�, said Dr. Samuel Pisar, renowned international lawyer, Holocaust survivor and Special Envoy to UNESCO. Pisar was making reference to the Iranian leader and infamous Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

�Within one year, this dictator is expected to have nuclear capabilities�, warned Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress.

He went on to say that �this is neither 1933 (the rise to power of Hitler) nor 1942 (the year of the Wannsee Conference) but 1929 - the year of the Great Depression.

�When people are facing financial uncertainty, they start looking for scapegoats�, he said. However, Schulz seemed more optimistic.

�This is 2013, and the difference is that we now have European institutions which are committed to safeguarding the fundamental values of tolerance, dignity and respect. The great majority will not accept anti-Semitism.�

The event also honoured the Swedish diplomat and businessman, Raoul Wallenberg. He saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis at the end of the Second World War, by issuing protective passports and offering shelter in buildings designated as Swedish territory. On Tuesday, members of the family were present in the European Parliament, as a conference room was named after him by President Schulz and Nane Annan, the niece of Raoul Wallenberg. Her cousin Louise von Dardel spoke about her uncle who she had never met, but admired deeply. She made a direct appeal to the European Parliament to make a formal request to the Russian authorities for an inquiry into what actually happened to Wallenberg after he disappeared in Budapest at the end of the war. Several speakers mentioned the fate of Wallenberg as an example of the fact that you cannot defeat evil - Nazism - with another form of evil, namely Communism. Raoul Wallenberg was last seen in 1945 in the company of Soviet officials.

In a private interview with ECI, President Schulz urged civil society organisations such as ECI, to work with the European Parliament to raise awareness of the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

The Holocaust Memorial in the European Parliament was the first event of the week with ECI as one of the co-organisers. In the next few days, there will be similar ECI events in Berlin, Munich and Auschwitz, where ECI Chairman, Harald Eckert, is taking part. The ECI-sponsored exhibition by Perry Trotter, “Shadows of Shoah�, will be officially launched at a high-profile national event on Friday in Auckland, New Zealand. Additional events are planned across Europe as well as in Japan, Africa and North America.

For the past eight years, ECI has called upon churches and faith communities in Europe and beyond, to honour the victims of the Holocaust in their Sunday services nearest to the 27th. This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked on January 27th. Shadows of Shoah is the work of New Zealand artist Perry Trotter. Using black and white imagery and original music, survivors´ experiences are presented in a brief but compelling format. Shadows of Shoah is a powerful and evocative piece of art, while carefully maintaining historical accuracy. The on-line exhibition can be viewed on

Source: European Coalition for Israel

European Union Adopts January 27 as Holocaust Day

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The European Union has incorporated International Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27 - into its official calendar.

“It is an honor for the institution that I lead to mark this day in such a dignified manner,” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said ahead of the ceremony, which for practical reasons was scheduled to take place in Brussels on Jan. 22.

January 27 is the date in 1945 that Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp.

This date was designated as a memorial day at the UN General Assembly in 2005.

For the past few years, the European Jewish Congress has noted the remembrance day with a ceremony at the European Parliament featuring EU speakers and guests.

However, this year it was placed formally on the EU calendar.

“With the political gains of the far-right and neo-Nazi parties in European parliaments, the fact that this event is warmly embraced by the most prominent European institutions sends a strong message against hate, racism and anti-Semitism,” said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, scheduled to open the ceremony.

The theme of the event is a tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters of 70 years ago.

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom will officiate at the inauguration of a new room at the European Parliament bearing the name of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

International Jewish News

�Jews Live In Fear in Europe�, European Parliament President Says

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Union established 'on the lessons of Auschwitz' as a framework for 'mutual control to avoid one member passing uncontrollably in a dangerous direction', Martin Schultz says

Jewish people are living in fear in Europe but the European Union will make sure they are not harmed, the president of the European Parliament said.

“Yes, Jewish people are living in fear in Europe but this is not 1929, this is 2012,” European Parliament President Martin Schultz has said Jan. 22 during a speech about anti-Semitism which he delivered at the European Parliament during a ceremony commemorating Holocaust victims.

He added that the European Union was established “on the lessons of Auschwitz” as a framework for �mutual control to avoid one member passing uncontrollably in a dangerous direction.�

Schultz, who spoke at the European Parliament’s first official ceremony in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was replying to an earlier address by European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor, who said: �This is not 1943, but it could well be 1929, with extremists marching in the street and into parliament.�

�I am warning Europe again, wake up immediately and limit your tolerance to racism and anti-Semitism,� Kantor added, citing a 2012 European study in which 63 percent of Hungarian respondents and 17 percent of British ones affirmed anti-Semitic views. Kantor also cited a 50 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in France in 2012 and political gains by two virulently anti-Semitic parties: Golden Dawn in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary.

These developments, as well as �Iran’s determined advance toward obtaining and delivering nuclear weapons� made 2012 �a time of gathering storm clouds� for Jews, Kantor said.

Over the past seven years, the European Parliament has hosted annually ceremonies which Jewish groups organized to commemorate the Jan. 27 Holocaust Memorial Day, the day in 1945 that Russian troops liberated Auschwitz. The Jan. 22 ceremony was, however, the first since the memorial day's incorporation this month into the European Union�s official calendar. Schultz said the move represented �a binding agreement� to commemorate the event together with the European Jewish Congress and other Jewish groups.

The event focused on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, �the most tragic and most heroic event of the Shoah and the first armed rebellion by Jews in German occupied Europe,� as it was termed by Samuel Pisar, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor and UNESCO honorary ambassador, who also spoke at the event.

Source: Haaretz

Martin Schulz Stresses Importance of Binding Annual Shoah Commemoration in the European Parliament

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Parliament President Martin Schulz on Tuesday stressed the importance of an annual binding commemoration of the Shoah by the EU institution.

Speaking in Brussels at the first ever official ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Schulz said: “The Shoah is a tragedy for all the Jewish communities of Europe and for Europe itself. It is therefore appropriate that this initiative to annually commemorate the victims of the Shoah in the European Parliament is a joint initiative of the elected representatives of Europe’s citizens gathered in this institution with the official representatives of Europe’s Jewish communities gathered under the representative umbrella of the European Jewish Congress."

“My presence here this evening together with EJC President. Moshe Kantor, stands testimony to our collective commitment as European citizens to work together so that never again will such barbarism and intolerance befall our continent," he added.

"Europe is existing every day, every moment, therefore we must be vigilant and prudent every day and every moment. Mutual respect, Respect for individual rights, respect for the right of everybody, the decent treatment to be respected as an individual, whatever country he comes from, or his political tendencies or to which religion he belongs, the basic element must always be respedct for the individual. The experience of Europe in the first half of the 20th century was this total ignorance, total absence of respect."

The theme of the commemoration was a tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters, whose struggle took place 70 years ago, and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor spoke about the shame in the political rise of fascist and neo-Nazi parties in Europe.

�From the late 1920�s all the way through to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, most of Europe chose to excuse the fact that populations facing economic hardship could be bought off by scapegoating minorities, by turning inwards to the hatred of the other,” Kantor told the audience of MEPs, ambassadors and members of the Jewish community. �This all sounds too familiar.”

�Today, amid economic turbulence on this continent, national parliaments contain increasing numbers of racists and anti-Semites. And it is to the immense shame of all of us that this European Parliament also contains such people," Kantor added.

Alan Shatter, Irish Minister of Justice, Equality and Defence, whose country chairs the rotating EU presidency, also related to the new wave of racism and anti-Semitism in Europe.

"We must not ignore the increase in anti-Semitism in Europe, the violence against individuals simply because they are Jewish, and the corrosive rise in racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric by amalign minority of politicians in some EU Member States," he said.

"It is a moral imperative that we unequivocally repudiate the reprehensible rhetoric of those who seek to contaminate our political discourse andf attempt to inflame dangerous prejudice".

He continued, �The Shoah did not begin in the death camps – it began with words of hate. Those words of hate became weapons of mass murder because good people closed their doors and window shutters and remained silent.�

The event was also addressed by Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission, Samuel Pisar, Honorary Ambassador and Special Envoy of UNESCO for Holocaust and genocide education and Prof Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish Secretary of State and the Plenipotentiary of the Prime Minister for International Dialogue.

A room in the European Parliament was named after Raoul Wallenberg, in the prssence of members of Wallenberg�s family and Holocaust survivors.

"Rarely has a European made such a major, such manifest and such difficult contributions to the service of mankind. The room in the European Parliament reminds us of Wallenberg�s magnificient courage for a just cause when facing the risk of losing one�s own life," said Martin Schulz.

��: European Jewish Press

European Parliament to Mark Int'l Holocaust Day

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Jewish congress head Moshe Kantor "delighted important event now on official calendar" in coordination with the EJC.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) and the European Parliament will hold the first annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day Event in Brussels on Tuesday.

The entrance of this event into the official European Union calendar is due to the cooperation and coordination between the EJC and European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

Dr. Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, will open the event.

“I am delighted that, with our partners in the European Parliament, we have managed to place such an important event on the official EU calendar,” Kantor said.

“Holocaust memorialization is a massive undertaking, not least in a time when Holocaust survivors are becoming fewer and anti- Semitism and intolerance is rising.”

�Furthermore,� he said, �with the political gains of the far-right and neo-Nazi parties in European parliaments, the fact that this event is warmly embraced by the most prominent European institutions sends a strong message against hate, racism and anti-Semitism.�

Schulz will also speak at the event, along with Maros Sefcovic, vice president of the European Commission, Alan Shatter, Irish minister for Justice, Equality and Defense, Samuel Pisar, honorary ambassador and special envoy of UNESCO for Holocaust and Genocide Education and Prof. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish secretary of state and the plenipotentiary of the prime minister for international dialogue.

�I am deeply touched that we are commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the European Parliament once more, a location that is highly symbolic of peace and reconciliation between former arch-enemies,� said Schulz.

�It is an honor for the institution that I lead to mark this day in such a dignified manner.

�The Holocaust must always be fresh in our minds and souls, in the conscience of humanity, and should serve as an incontrovertible warning for all time: Never again!� The theme of the event is a tribute to the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, whose struggle took place 70 years ago, and to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

A new room in the European Parliament in honor of Wallenberg will be inaugurated by Cecilia Malmström, the EU commissioner for Home Affairs.

The event will be attended by MEPs, ambassadors to the European Union, other highlevel dignitaries, Holocaust survivors and members of Wallenberg’s family.

Kantor is expected to speak at the event about the greater need for combatting racism and intolerance, and will draw a parallel between the situation today and the 1920s and ’30s in Europe before the rise of Nazism.

�From the late 1920s all the way through to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, most of Europe chose to excuse the fact that populations facing economic hardship could be bought off by scapegoating minorities, by turning inwards to the hatred of the other,� Kantor said. �This all sounds too familiar.

�Today, amid economic turbulence on this continent, national parliaments contain increasing numbers of racists and anti-Semites.

And it is to the immense shame of all of us that this European Parliament also contains such people.�

Source: Jerusalem Post

EU Places Holocaust Memorial Day on Its Official Calendar

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The European Union has incorporated International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, into its official calendar.

President of the European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor, gesturing during an interview with Reuters, has called the EU’s creation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day ‘a strong message against anti-Semitism.’

“It is an honor for the institution that I lead to mark this day in such a dignified manner,” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said ahead of the ceremony, which for practical reasons is scheduled to take place in Brussels on January 22.

For the past few years, the European Jewish Congress has noted the remembrance day with a ceremony at the European Parliament featuring EU speakers and guests. However, this year it was placed formally on the EU calendar.

The theme of the event is a tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters of 70 years ago.

In addition, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom will officiate at the inauguration of a new room at the European Parliament bearing the name of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

January 27, the date in 1945 that Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp, was designated as a memorial day at the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.

Source: Press Display

EU Places Holocaust Memorial on Official Calendar

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Commemoration will honor the Warsaw ghetto uprising and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.

The European Union has incorporated International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, into its official calendar.

The theme of the event is a tribute to the Warsaw ghetto uprising fighters of 70 years ago.

Jan. 27, the date in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp, was designated as a memorial day at the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.

Source: The Times of Israel

For the First Time the European Parliament Will Hold Next Week an Official Ceremony to Mark International Holocaust Day

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, has decided to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Day as part of the EU institution’s official ceremonies.

The first such ceremony will be held on January 22 at the EU parliament seat in Brussels.

In a letter sent to Rabbi Avi Tawil, President of the European Jewish Community Center (EJCC), who has initiated for the past 7 years an annual event at the parliament, Martin Schulz promised that the European Parliament “ is committed to the perpetuation of the Holocaust commemoration and to the promotion of democracy and human rights.”

Although it was not considered as official until now, this annual commemoration was attended by various personalities from the European parliament and other EU bodies.

"The commemoration of the Holocaust and its lessons is essential not only for the Jewish community but for all people in Europe and the entire world. Unfortunately, we are witnessing an alarming rise in popularity of hate groups across Europe as a consequence of the financial crisis,” Rabbi Tawil said in a statement.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, General Director of the European Jewish Association (EJA), thanked President Schulz for his efforts to promote the lessons of the Holocaust. "The European institutions have the responsibility to increase education toward tolerance in all EU member states. Education is the key to preventing the reoccurrence of such acts of horror,� he said.

He also praised Rabbi Tawil for his devotion and contribution to the commemoration of the Holocaust in the European institutions and expressed his appreciation for the European Jewish Congress’ efforts in executing the ceremonies in the past two years.

Source: European Jewish Press

EJC Head Blasts 'Spiegel' Writer for 'Israel Hatred'

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress head Kantor accuses Augstein of using his columns to stoke hate against Israel and Jews.

Dr. Moshe Kantor, the head of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), accused Der Spiegel journalist Jakob Augstein of using his columns to stoke hatred against Israel and Jews.

In a statement given to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Kantor wrote, “Certain journalists and other opinion-shapers, among them Jakob Augstein, over the last few years have used their columns to promote hate and fear of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.”

“Obviously they are not the same thing, but when the age-old canards that were used against Jews for hundreds of years appear to be directly replicated against the Jewish state, this should tell us something about the dangerous lines that these people are treading,” Kantor, who is widely considered a leading authority on contemporary anti-Semitism, continued.

�If these people are using the same unoriginal attacks against the Jewish state as were used against the Jewish people, then we have a right to defend ourselves in exactly the same way and call this hatred for what it is.�

The EJC represents more than 2.5 million Jews throughout Europe, covering 42 national Jewish communities.

Kantor’s remarks differed sharply from Salomon Korn, the vice president of Germany’s Jewish community, who argued that Augstein�s writings are not anti-Semitic.

Korn, along with some German Jewish leaders, was in the minority on the issue among prominent European and American Jewish figures.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center included Augstein in its 2012 list of top ten anti-Semites and haters of Israel because of a steady stream of writings hostile to Jews and Israel.

The Anti-Defamation League told the Post that one of Augstein�s statements – when he wrote, �With backing from the US, where the president must secure the support of Jewish lobby groups, and in Germany, where coping with history, in the meantime, has a military component, the Netanyahu government keeps the world on a leash with an ever-swelling war chant� – falls into the category of conspiratorial anti- Semitic thinking.

In another piece, Augstein equated Israeli haredim to Islamic terrorists following the �law of revenge.� The left-wing writer said the attacks against him were �defaming critical journalism.�

Source: Jerusalem Post

Festival of Caricatures in Tehran Explicitly Denies Holocaust

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress calls on international community to condemn a festival of caricatures initiated by Iran in effort to deny Holocaust.

President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), Moshe Kantor, called on the international community to condemn a festival of caricatures in Tehran initiated by the Iranian regime in an effort to explicitly deny the Holocaust.

"Once again the Iranian regime is inciting against the Jewish People, denying genocide while actively preparing the means, through their illicit nuclear weapons program, to threaten the Jewish state with violent destruction,” Kantor said.

“We expect little of such a rogue regime. However, we do expect the international community to look at this latest incitement and place it within the context of their active pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Iran said it was organizing the festival in protest against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s plan to publish a comic book on the life of Muhammad.

The first festival took place several years ago in response to the crude publications of a Danish magazine against the prophet of Islam.

“One can not separate the rabid incitement, the calls for 'death to Israel' and the means to pursue this aspiration," Kantor added.

Source: Arutz Sheva

EJC President Denounces Iran-Initiated Holocaust Denial Cartoon Festival

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called the international community’s attention to the a festival of caricatures in Tehran initiated by the Iranian regime to deny and ridicule the Holocaust and the Jewish People.

It is a repeat of similar event held in the country in 2006.

“One can not separate the rabid incitement, the calls for 'death to Israel' and the means to pursue this aspiration," he added.

Tehran's efforts to trivialize Nazi Germany's near-annihilation of European Jewry, which extend into virulent and explicit Holocaust denial, have caused concern among foreign policy analysts that the regime might be ideologically fixated on promoting anti-Semitic violence.

Analysts have cited Iran's direct links to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed dozens of people, as evidence that Tehran is specifically committed to globally targeting Jews.

Source: European Jewish Press

Swedish Bullies Stone Jewish Boy and Yell �Heil Hitler�

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Bullies in Malmo, Sweden threw stones and snowballs at a 15-year-old Jewish boy and saluted him with “Heil Hitler” last week, Radio Sweden reported.

The Jewish community of Malmo has been under escalating threats the past few years from Muslims and neo-Nazis, and European Jewish Congress president Dr. Moshe Kantor said last week, "The community is slowly being pushed out; it is dying of 'a thousand cuts.'"

The latest incidents took place over a period of several days, with the snowball and stoning attacks following two “Hitler salutes” earlier in the week.

Comments by a local Jewish leader highlight the sense of futility in the Jewish community. Fred Kahn, head of the Jewish community in Malmo told the local newspaper Skånska Dagbladet, "Things like this happen all the time in Malmo. It's nothing new. The difference is that nowadays people report things to the police, and that's good."

Radio Sweden reported that a complaint was filed with the police, but prosecutors have not yet decided whether to or not to drop the case.

Approximately 40 anti-Semitic crimes were reported in Malmo in 2011 and the first six months of 2012, according to the local newspaper.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Germany Approves Bill to Keep Circumcision Legal

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The new law, passed with 434 to 100 votes, grants parents the right to authorize the circumcision of their sons by a trained practitioner.

German lawmakers Wednesday approved a bill to keep male infant circumcision legal after a regional court ruled earlier this year that the practice amounts to bodily harm.

The government proposed the law in the wake of harsh criticism of the Cologne court ruling from Jewish and Muslim groups.

The new law, which passed with 434 votes for, 100 against and 46 abstaining, grants parents the right to have their sons circumcised by a trained practitioner. Once the boy reaches six months of age the procedure needs to be performed by a doctor.

A minority of left-wing lawmakers in Parliament proposed that parents should have to wait until the boy is 14 so he can give informed consent, noting the procedure is irreversible.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, praised the new law as “moral and just.”

Kantor said he hoped the German example could serve as a model for other European countries that are debating the contentious issue.

In June, a Cologne regional court ruled that a doctor had inflicted bodily harm on a 4-year-old Muslim boy he circumcised at the request of the boy’s parents.

Although the ruling was only binding in a small region, doctors across Germany halted the practice for fear of prosecution.

Source: Haaretz

German Parliament Approves Bill to Grant Legal Protection to Circumcision in the Country

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Bundestag, the German Parliament, on Wednesday approved a bill to keep male infant circumcision legal after a Cologne court ruled in May that the practice amounts to bodily harm.

The government proposed the law following heavy criticism of the court ruling by Jewish and Muslim groups.

Jews in particular consider ‘brit milah’, the male infant circumcision, an ancient and essential part of their religious tradition.

Months of debate on the cultural and religious tradition of circumcision in Germany followed. Nowhere else in the entire world has this debate been held "with such acrimony, frostiness and at times brutal intolerance," Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said at the time.

The new law, passed with 434 to 100 votes, grants parents the right to authorize the circumcision of their sons by a trained practitioner.

Once the boy reaches six months of age the procedure needs to be performed by a doctor.

A cross-party minority in Parliament had proposed that parents should have to wait until their son is 14 so he can give informed consent for the procedure.

Months of debate on the cultural and religious tradition of infant male circumcision in Germany followed. Nowhere else in the entire world has this debate been held "with such acrimony, frostiness and at times brutal intolerance," Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said at the time.

The Cologne ruling led to a good deal of legal insecurity. In practice in the past, it had always been undisputed that parents could agree to a circumcision that is not strictly necessary from a medical point of view.

In July, the German Bundestag began debating the difficult issue. Across party lines, lawmakers agreed that Jewish and Muslim religious life must continue to be possible in Germany and appealed to the federal government to draw up legislation to this effect.

In August, Germany's ethics council unanimously recommended establishing legal standards, including the observation of minimum requirements such as information, medical pain treatment and a professional operating procedure.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany, which has announced it will introduce special training courses, says Germany already has four mohels, who practice the circumcision, some of them trained rabbis and doctors.

Muslims also practice male circumcision - however, there is no strict definition as to the age at which circumcision can be carried out; in practice it can take place at any time before about the age of 14.

European Jewish Congress President, Moshe Kantor, welcomed the bill passed in the German Parliament as "a victory for religious freedom and tolerance in Germany."»

“The bill, which protects the rights of the Jewish community to continue religious circumcision, is moral and just.”

“The German Government deserves a lot of credit for finding an appropriate formula which takes into account various concerns but affirms the right of Jews, and other religious minorities, to continue these traditions vital for our community’s sustenance," he added.

Source: European Jewish Press

Germany Passes Law To Protect Circumcision after Outcry

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

German politicians passed a law on Wednesday to protect the right to circumcise infant boys in a show of support for Muslims and Jews angered by a local court ban on the practice in May.

The ban - imposed on the grounds that circumcision amounted to "bodily harm" - triggered an emotional debate over the treatment of Jews and other religious minorities, a sensitive subject in a country still haunted by its Nazi past.

The outcry prompted Germany's centre-right government and opposition parties to draw up legislation confirming the practice was legal - overruling the decision by a court in the western city of Cologne.

The new law passed by an overwhelming majority in Bundestag lower house said the operation could be carried out, as long as parents were informed about the risks.

Jewish groups welcomed the move.

"This vote and the strong commitment shown ... to protect this most integral practice of the Jewish religion is a strong message to our community for the continuation and flourishing of Jewish life in Germany," said Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress.

Germany's Catholic Bishops Conference said it hoped the bill would help safeguard religious freedoms. No comment was immediately available from the country's Central Council of Muslims.

The May ruling centered on the case of a Muslim boy who bled after the procedure and the ban only applied to the area around Cologne.

But some doctors in other parts of Germany started refusing to carry out circumcisions, saying it was unclear whether they would face prosecution.

Under the new law, a doctor or trained expert must conduct the operation and children must endure as little pain as possible, which means an anesthetic should be used. The procedure cannot take place if there is any doubt about the child's health.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said no other country in the world country had made the religious circumcision of boys an offence.

"In our modern and secular state, it is not the job of the state to interfere in children's' upbringing," she said.

Child welfare group Deutsche Kinderhilfe disagreed, saying the government had "(pushed) through the legalization of the ritual of genital circumcision ... against the advice of child right campaigners and the medical profession."

Source: Reuters

EJC: Swedish Jewish Community 'Dying of 1,000 Cuts'

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Sweden's Jewish community is in “grave danger” after a series of anti-Semitic attacks, warns the European Jewish Congress. The statement came in the wake of an attack on two Jewish women earlier this week in the city of Malmo.

"The situation is intolerable for Jews in Malmo, and every week we hear of another attack,” said EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor.

"The community is slowly being pushed out; it is dying of 'a thousand cuts.' Each attack should be seen and dealt with as a part of a greater pattern to make Jewish life unsustainable in Sweden,� he reported.

"The attacks against Jews should be seen in their entirety and there is a concerted attempt to rid certain areas in Sweden, if not the whole country, of Jews,� Kantor warned.

Earlier in the week, large swastikas were twice scrawled on several doors belonging to two separate Jewish homes in Malmo, according to a report published in the local daily Sydsvenskan.

One of the homes was broken into, and a computer and Judaica were stolen. The homeowners reportedly called police four times during that weekend as the attackers continued to return.

"Breaking into Jewish homes and deliberately stealing items of great personal and emotional value is outrageous,� noted Lena Posner-Korosi, President of the Swedish Council of Jewish Communities and EJC executive member.

The incident came on the heels of an attack on a synagogue in Malmo, a vicious attack on a rabbi in the street and several assaults carried out against the Jewish community in the last couple of months, Kantor added.

"The EJC will request a meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden to discuss the issue and the need for greater policing, enforcement of anti-racism laws and a long-term strategy for dealing with the attacks on the Jewish community, because we are reaching a tipping point for the Jews in Sweden,� he said.

“I urge the political leadership not only in Malmo but the Swedish government to take all measures to end the spiral of increased hatred and violence against Jews in the country,� Posner-Korosi said.

Source: Arutz Sheva

European Jewish Leader Rings Alarm Bells Over Situation of Jews in Sweden

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has warned that the Swedish Jewish community is in grave danger following a series of anti-Semitic attacks, most notably on two Jewish women in Malmö earlier this week. "The situation is intolerable for Jews in Malmö, and every week we hear of another attack,” EJC President Moshe Kantor said. “The community is slowly being pushed out; it is dying of a ‘thousand cuts’. Each attack should be seen and dealt with as a part of a greater pattern to make Jewish life unsustainable in Sweden.”

“The attacks against Jews should be seen in their entirety and there is a concerted attempt to rid certain areas on Sweden, if not the whole country, of Jews,� he added.

Earlier in the week, large swastikas were twice scrawled on several doors belonging to two separate Jewish homes in Malmö, according to a report in the local daily 'Sydsvenskan'. One of the homes was broken into, and a computer and Judaica were stolen. The homeowners reportedly called police four times during the weekend as the assailants continued to return. This follows an attack on a synagogue in Malmö, a rabbi viciously attacked in the street and several assaults carried out against the Jewish community in the last couple of months.

The EJC said it would request a meeting with the prime minister of Sweden to discuss the issue and "the need for greater policing, enforcement of anti-racism laws and a long-term strategy for dealing with the attacks on the Jewish community because we are reaching a tipping point for the Jews in Sweden."

Lena Posner-Körösi, president of the Swedish Council of Jewish Communities, said that �breaking into Jewish homes and deliberately stealing items of great personal and emotional value is outrageous. I urge the political leadership not only in Malmö but the Swedish government to take all measures to end the spiral of increased hatred and violence against Jews in the country.�

Source: World Jewish Congress

EJC: Swedish Jewish Community in Grave Danger after Series of Anti-Semitic Attacks

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), Dr. Moshe Kantor, warned that the Swedish Jewish community is in grave danger after a series of anti-Semitic attacks, most notably an attack on two Jewish women in Malmo earlier in the week.

“The situation is intolerable for Jews in Malmo and every week we hear of another attack,” Kantor said. “The community is slowly being pushed out; it is dying of a ‘thousand cuts’. Each attack should be seen and dealt with as a part of a greater pattern to make Jewish life unsustainable in Sweden.”

�The attacks against Jews should be seen in their entirety and there is a concerted attempt to rid certain areas on Sweden, if not the whole country, of Jews.�

Earlier in the week, large swastikas were twice scrawled on several doors belonging to two separate Jewish homes in Malmo, according to a report in Sydsvenskan, a local daily. One of the homes was broken into, and a computer and Judaica were stolen. The homeowners reportedly called police four times during the weekend as the assailants continued to return. This follows an attack on a synagogue in Malmo, a rabbi viciously attacked in the street and several assaults carried out against the Jewish community in the last couple of months.

�The EJC will request a meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden to discuss the issue and the need for greater policing, enforcement of anti-racism laws and a long-term strategy for dealing with the attacks on the Jewish community because we are reaching a tipping point for the Jews in Sweden,� Kantor said.

Lena Posner-Korosi, President of the Swedish Council of Jewish Communities and EJC executive member said that �breaking into Jewish homes and deliberately stealing items of great personal and emotional value is outrageous. I urge the political leadership not only in Malmo but the Swedish government to take all measures to end the spiral of increased hatred and violence against Jews in the country.�

Source: The Yeshiva World

EU Urged to Condemn Hungarian MP at Centre of Storm over 'Nazi' Comments

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Hungarian MP Marton Gyongyosi has been condemned for reportedly calling for a survey to count the number of Jews in Hungary, especially in parliament and government, "because they pose a security threat".

The deputy, from the right wing Jobbik party, is said to have made the remarks on Monday during a debate on the Middle East in the Hungarian parliament.

Jobbik is the third largest block from Hungary in the European parliament with three MEPs, having attained almost 15 per cent of the vote in European elections in 2009.

The national parliamentarian was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday but his alleged comments drew an angry response from European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor.

He demanded that colleagues from his party in the European parliament join him and others in denouncing his comments.

He said, "This suggestion is reminiscent of the "selection" which took place in Nazi concentration camps where people would be divided into the desirable and the less desirable who should be dispensed with because they were a threat.

"This has broken all lows for the Jobbik party and their party should be shunned in Hungary and proscribed in parliament where they have representation."

He added, "After Gyongyosi's remarks, none of the Hungarian MPs left the chamber in Budapest in protest, the speaker of the House did not mute his microphone and did not discipline him either. In fact, his remarks received a gentle applause.

"These remarks present an important challenge for the Hungarian and European parliament. Either they place boundaries on hate-speech and incitement to violence within representative parties in their parliaments or it will lose its moral compass."

Kantor said the alleged comments should provoke "outrage" from senior Hungarian and EU officials, adding, "Refraining from a wide scale outrage will leave the Jewish community feeling there is acquiescence that this constitutes acceptable speech and parliamentary conduct.

"The increase in physical attacks on Jews in Hungary, we believe, is directly related to not only the rise of Jobbik, but also the lack of condemnation for their statements and actions."

The MP belongs to the Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary which is no stranger to controversy.

The party currently holds 47 seats in the Hungarian parliament having received more than 12 per cent of the vote in national elections in 2010.

In April this year, Jobbik MP Barath Zsolt alleged a cover-up of an infamous late 19th century 'blood libel' in Tiszaeszlár during a parliamentary debate.

Zsolt directly accused Jews of killing a girl in the town and blamed "external pressure" on the judge for the "cover-up".

A spokesman for the Brussels-based European Jewish Congress said, "The Jobbik party continually make anti-Semitic and racist speeches in the Hungarian parliament as well as organise military-style marches in Roma communities.

"They engage in regular Holocaust denial, bring up 19th century blood libels - the lot. They are probably the closest we have anywhere in Europe to a neo-Nazi group represented in a parliament within the EU. There are 47 of them in the Hungarian parliament.

"They are also the third largest Hungarian party bloc in the European parliament with three MEPs.

"Yesterday, 24 hours after the speech, many criticised him. From our perspective, he should have been thrown out of the chamber immediately and told not to come back.

"It's a disgrace for Hungary that Jobbik are in their parliament and it's a disgrace for the European parliament that they are here in Brussels as well," he added.

Source: theparliament.com

Hungarian Jobbik Leader Says Jews a 'Risk,' Calls for Jewish Registry

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

A Hungarian politician is facing a backlash after calling Jews a “national security risk” and suggesting a registry list of all Jewish citizens living in the nation.

Marton Gyongyosi is a member of the Jobbik party, which has received heat in recent months for similarly anti-Semitic comments. Many in the Jewish community categorize Jobbik as a neo Nazi group.

"I know how many people with Hungarian ancestry live in Israel, and how many Israeli Jews live in Hungary," Gyongyosi, Jobbik’s deputy parliamentary group leader, told parliament. "I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary."

Gyongyosi has since apologized for the remarks, saying he was not referring to Jewish citizens, but those with dual Israeli-Hungarian citizenship.

"I am a Holocaust survivor," Gusztav Zoltai, executive director of the Hungarian Jewish Congregations' Association, told Associated Press. "For people like me this generates raw fear, even though it is clear that this only serves political ends. This is the shame of Europe, the shame of the world."

Jobbik was incredibly critical of Israel during the recent operation in Gaza, and Gyongyosi allegedly asked parliament why the government sided with Israel and not the Palestinians during the conflict.

"Either they place boundaries on hate speech and incitement to violence within representative parties in their parliaments or it will lose its moral compass,” said European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor. “We demand outrage from senior Hungarian and European Union officials after these comments. Refraining from a wide-scale outrage will leave the Jewish community feeling there is acquiescence that this constitutes acceptable speech and parliamentary conduct.�

The Hungarian government distanced itself from Gyongyosi’s remarks, saying it �strictly rejects extremist, racist, anti-Semitic voices of any kinds and does everything to suppress such voices.�

Jobbik is the third largest political party in Hungary�s government, winning 40 seats in the last election, which surprised many in parliament.

"Jobbik has moved from representing medieval superstition [of blood libel] to openly Nazi ideologies," wrote Slomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, in a statement.

Source: Jspace.com

Hungarian Jobbik MP�s Anti-Semitic Statements Condemned by Government and Jewish Groups

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hungarian government on Tuesday condemned comments made by a parliament member of the extreme-right Jobbik party who said officials of Jewish origin should be listed because they might be a "national security risk."

Marton Gyongyosi made the remarks during a debate on Gaza at the Hungarian parliament.

He said the list was "necessary" because of heightened tensions following the brief conflict in Gaza and should include members of parliament.

"I know how many people with Hungarian ancestry live in Israel, and how many Israeli Jews live in Hungary," according to a video posted on Jobbik's website on Monday.

"I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary."

"The government condemns to the greatest possible degree" Mr Gyongyosi's statement, a spokesman said. He added that the government took "the strictest possible action against every form of racism and anti-Semitic behaviour" and did "everything in order to ensure that malicious voices incompatible with European norms are driven back."

"The government also makes it clear that every citizen will be protected from such insults," the spokesman said.

Parliament Speaker, Laszlo Kover, from the ruling Fidesz party, issued a statement calling for a tightening of house rules that would allow a sanctioning of such behaviour.

Jobbik, which is knowsn for its frequent anti-Semitic slurs, is the third largest group in the 386-seat parliament with 47 seats.

Gyongyosi’s statement stirred outrage among Jewish organizations.

"I am a Holocaust survivor," said Gusztav Zoltai, executive director of the Hungarian Jewish Congregations' Association. "For people like me this generates raw fear, even though it is clear that this only serves political ends. This is the shame of Europe, the shame of the world."

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, mostly in Auschwitz.

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said Gyongyosi's suggestion "is reminiscent of the ‘selection’ which took place in Nazi concentration camps where people would be divided into the desirable and the less desirable who should be dispensed with because they were a threat."

"This has broken all lows for the Jobbik party and their party should be shunned in Hungary and proscribed in the European Parliament where they have representation."

Jobbik has three MEPs in the EU assembly.

According to Kantor, "these remarks present an important challenge for the Hungarian and European Parliament. Either they place boundaries on hate-speech and incitement to violence within representative parties in their parliaments or it will lose its moral compass."

He continued, "We demand outrage from senior Hungarian and European Union officials after these comments. Refraining from a wide-scale outrage will leave the Jewish community feeling there is acquiescence that this constitutes acceptable speech and parliamentary conduct."

"The increase in physical attacks on Jews in Hungary, we believe, is directly related to not only the rise of Jobbik, but also the lack of condemnation for their statements and actions."

Source: European Jewish Press

EJC: Palestine UN Bid Puts Nail in Coffin of Peace Process

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) President, Dr. Moshe Kantor, called on European nations to reject the Palestinian United Nations status upgrade to observer status on Monday, stating that the bid would hammer a nail into the coffin of the peace process.

“Those who believe they are furthering the peace process should be aware that they are hammering a nail into its very coffin," Kantor said in a statement.

Kantor added that a vote in favor of the bid, put forward by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, would be a vote for Hamas.

According to the Kantor, the European Jewish Congress has been lobbying senior European officials against the move, pushing the idea that voting for Palestine to become a non-member state would be a vote against Israel's right to self-defense.

"Anyone who believes in Israel’s right to self-defense and endurance as a nation must withhold their consent to the Palestinian upgraded status," Kantor said.

Source: JPost.com

Ahead of November 29 Vote, European Jewish Congress Calls on European Nations to Reject Palestinian UN Status Upgrade

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

European Jewish Congress President, Moshe Kantor, has called on European nations to reject the Palestinian United Nations status upgrade to non-member observer status.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to formally apply for the upgraded status at the United Nations General Assembly on November 29.

"The recent conflict proved beyond any doubt that the Palestinian Authority does not meet the criteria of statehood as it exercises absolutely no authority over part of its territory and is not 'peace seeking' as is required of any nation according to the United Nations Charter," Kantor said.

The EJC believes that accepting the upgrade only a few days after the recent conflict in Gaza and southern Israel would be used to open another front against Israel.

"Palestinian Authority officials have often repeated that their only gain and primary motive for seeking the upgrade is to promote ‘Lawfare’ against Israeli leaders and military officials, in spurious legal cases in the international court system," Kantor said.

"Abusing the United Nations system merely to use it as a tool to attack another nation should not be awarded, and certainly not as a reward."

"Furthermore, the upgrade may be given to Abbas, but eventually it will be handed to Hamas, a European Union designated terrorist organization which deliberately targets civilian population centers, including schools and kindergartens, and seeks the obliteration of a full member state," he said.

"The abject instability and bouts of violence which erupt perpetually within the Palestinian leadership requires a rethink whether national status would contribute towards lessening the volatility on the ground," Kantor stressed.

"Anyone who believes in Israel’s right to self-defense and endurance as a nation must withhold their consent to the Palestinian upgraded status at this time," Kantor continued.

"Those who believe they are furthering the peace process should be aware that they are hammering a nail into its very coffin and the Palestinians will understand there is nothing to be gained from the negotiations table and everything to be gained in internationalizing the conflict."

The European Parliament last week expressed its support for the Palestinian bid but a common EU position of the member states on the issue is unlikely as several states have already expressed their opposition to the Palestinian "unilateral move" and have rather called on Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct talks.

Source: EJP

Moshe Kantor Reelected President of the European Jewish Congress

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

On Wednesday, November 7, 2012, Dr. Moshe Kantor was reelected to an additional four-year mandate as president of the European Jewish Congress, the democratically-elected organization representing European Jewry.

�We cannot rest on our laurels, there are many challenges for the Jewish communities of Europe to face in the coming years,� Kantor said. �Anti-Semitism is growing from both extremes, our traditions are under assault and Israel is constantly under threat of delegitimization.�

The European Jewish Congress federates the democratically elected official leaders of national Jewish communities in over 40 European countries, uniting 2.5 million Jews across the continent.

Kantor received 73 percent of the votes, defeating his challenger, Richard Prasquier, the president of the French Jewish community.

Kantor, 59, was first elected president of the European Jewish Congress in 2007. He was awarded the highest level of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor this year, in recognition of his work toward the rights of minorities, promoting interfaith relations, leading the fight against racism and anti-Semitism and working for a more tolerant Europe. Due to his efforts, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is now an annual event in the European Parliament, keeping alive the memory and significance of the Holocaust and its lessons among European leaders and officials.

Source: Haaretz.com

Moshe Kantor Reelected EJC President

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Kantor to serve as leader of organization representing European Jewry for four more years after receiving 73% of votes

Dr. Moshe Kantor was reelected Wednesday to a new four-year mandate as president of the European Jewish Congress, the democratically-elected organization representing European Jewry.

"However, we go into the next four years on the back of significant progress, working together with European governments and pan-European institutions who understand the growing threat of anti-Semitism and racism for all European citizens.�

The European Jewish Congress federates the democratically elected official leaders of national Jewish communities in over 40 European countries, uniting 2.5 million Jews across the continent.

Kantor received 73% of the votes, defeating his challenger, Richard Prasquier, the president of the French Jewish community.

�I am very excited about the future and I thank the delegates for placing their faith in me.�

At the same meeting, Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was elected Chairman of the EJC Council.

Moshe Kantor, 59, was first elected president of the European Jewish Congress in 2007. He is at the forefront of all key issues relating to Jews on the European continent.

As president of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, a non-governmental organization uniting world-renowned experts on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, he has focused on the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran on global stability.

He was awarded the highest level of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor this year, in recognition of his work towards the rights of minorities, promoting interfaith relations, leading the fight against racism and anti-Semitism and working for a more tolerant Europe.

Due to his efforts, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is now an annual event in the European Parliament, keeping alive the memory and significance of the Holocaust and its lessons amongst European leaders and officials.

Source: Ynetnews

Kantor Re-Elected President of the European Jewish Congress

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Moshe Kantor was re-elected to a new four-year mandate as president of the European Jewish Congress, the democratically-elected organization representing European Jewry, on Wednesday.

However, we go into the next four years on the back of significant progress, working together with European governments and pan-European institutions who understand the growing threat of anti-Semitism and racism for all European citizens.�

The European Jewish Congress federates the democratically elected official leaders of national Jewish communities in over 40 European countries, uniting 2.5 million Jews across the continent.

Kantor received 73% of the votes, defeating his challenger, Richard Prasquier, the president of the French Jewish community.

Source: Jpost.com

Kantor Re-Elected European Jewish Congress Head

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Organization's president defeats challenger Prasquier with 73% of vote, warns Jewish traditions, Israel under assault

Moshe Kantor was re-elected to a new four-year mandate as president of the European Jewish Congress, the democratically-elected organization representing European Jewry, on Wednesday.

The European Jewish Congress federates the democratically elected official leaders of national Jewish communities in over 40 European countries, uniting 2.5 million Jews across the continent.

Kantor received 73% of the votes, defeating his challenger, Richard Prasquier, the president of the French Jewish community.

�I am very excited about the future and I thank the delegates for placing their faith in me.�

At the same meeting, Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was elected chairman of the EJC Council.

Kantor, 59, was first elected president of the European Jewish Congress in 2007. He is at the forefront of all key issues relating to Jews on the European continent. As president of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, a non-governmental organization uniting world-renowned experts on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, he has focused on the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran on global stability.

Source: JPost.com

Moshe Kantor Reelected At the Head of European Jewish Congress

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Incumbent President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Moshe Kantor was reelected Wednesday for a 4-year mandate at the head of the pan-European Jewish body.

The Russian businessman and philantropist, who was first elected in 2006, garnered 60 votes from 86 representatives of 42 European Jewish communities during a General Assembly in Brussels.

Kantor’s challenger, French Richard Prasquier, who heads CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organisations in France, got 22 votes. There were 4 empty ballots.

Source: EJP

Wineman Wins Election to Chair European Jewish Group

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Vivian Wineman, the president of the Board of Deputies, has been elected to chair the European Jewish Congress’ council.

Mr Wineman won an election at an EJC meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday.

The EJC is the federation of democratically-elected leaders of Jewish communities across 40 European countries, representing around 2.5 million European Jews.

Mr Wineman took part in hustings events in the run-up to the vote and said he was “very pleased” to be involved at such a high level of the “effective organisation”.

Moshe Kantor was re-elected as EJC president for another four-year term. He won three-quarters of the votes to defeat challenger Richard Prasquier, president of the French Jewish community.

Dr Kantor said: �We cannot rest on our laurels, there are many challenges for the Jewish communities of Europe to face in the coming years. Antisemitism is growing from both extremes, our traditions are under assault and Israel is constantly under threat of delegitimisation.�

Source: The Jewish Chronicle

Moshe Kantor Re-Elected As European Jewish Congress Head

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

At a General Assembly meeting in Brussels, the Russian businessman Moshe Kantor has been confirmed in his post of president of the European Jewish Congress for a third term. Sixty (73 percent) of the delegates present voted for Kantor while Richard Prasquier, president of the French Jewish community umbrella organization CRIF, received 22 votes (27 percent). The 59-year-old Kantor has served as EJC head since June 2007.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved over the last few years,” Kantor said after the vote. “The voice of European Jewry is clearly visible in a united Europe, whose political weight is felt throughout the world. We cannot rest on our laurels, there are many challenges for the Jewish communities of Europe to face in the coming years. Anti-Semitism is growing from both extremes, our traditions are under assault and Israel is constantly under threat of delegitimization," the EJC president declared, adding: "However, we go into the next four years on the back of significant progress, working together with European governments and pan-European institutions who understand the growing threat of anti-Semitism and racism for all European citizens.”

The General Assembly also elected Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, as new chairman of the EJC Council. He succeeds Flo Kaufmann in this post.

Based in Paris, the European Jewish Congress was founded in 1986. Prior to that, it existed as the European branch of the World Jewish Congress (WJC). The EJC is today is one of five regional affiliates of the WJC and federates the democratically elected leaders of national Jewish communities in 42 countries.

Source: World Jewish Congress

Moshe Kantor Reelected European Jewish Congress President. New Term Will Focus on Rising Anti-Semitism and Security Threats

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Moshe Kantor has been reelected president of the European Jewish Congress.

Sixty of the 86 representatives of European Jewish communities voted for Kantor at the EJC General Assembly in Brussels on Wednesday, and 22 tapped Dr. Richard Prasquier, the president of the umbrella group of France’s Jewish communities, CRIF. Four representatives cast blank votes.

Kantor, a Russian space engineer and businessman who resides in London, thanked Prasquier for his candidacy, “which helped strengthen the democracy of the EJC.” He added that “Richard is an outstanding personality, devoted and highly intelligent, and a real asset to our organization.”

The president since 2007, Kantor said he and the organization �cannot afford to rest on any laurels� because of rising anti-Semitism on the continent and greater security threats.

On Tuesday, he announced the initiation of a new fund to accommodate security and crisis-management needs of Jewish communities. The level of funding will be determined later this year, an EJC spokesman said.

Also at the General Assembly, Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was voted in as chairman of the EJC Council.

Founded in 1986, EJC began as an offshoot of the World Jewish Congress and has since evolved into an organization with two offices, in Paris and Brussels. It represents 42 Jewish communities from Turkey to Portugal.

The Times of Israel

French Jewish Leader Challenges Russian Moshe Kantor at European Jewish Congress President Election

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Richard Prasquier, President of CRIF, the umbrella representative group of the Jewish community in France, the largest in Europe, could be set to become the next president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), the organisation representing the interests of some 42 Jewish communities in Europe.

At a meeting of the EJC’s General Assembly scheduled to convene in Brussels on Wednesday, 85 representatives from diverse Jewish communities will be tasked with choosing by secret ballot between the Russian incumbent president Moshe Kantor and his French rival.

Kantor, a businessman and philanthropist, was elected as head of the organisation in 2007, succeeding its former French president Pierre Besnainou, before being re-elected for a four-year term in 2008, when he similarly faced off against French challenger Roger Cukierman, another former CRIF president. Kantor is able to stand for the third time, since the EJC’s constitution does not legislate a fixed mandate for the president.

The election of the president of EJC comes at a particularly urgent time for the organisation in light of a surge of anti-Semitic activity in Europe, the resurgence of extreme-right parties in several countries as well as attacks against religious practices, notably shechita (ritual slaughter of animals) and brit milah (circumcision).

Prasquier has criticized the EJC of not having played its full role over in recent years.

“In a European climate which is likely to become more and more difficult, I would like the European Jewish Congress to play a role of coordination and action, of supporting the diverse Jewish communities of Europe which are faced with a variety of worrying threats,” he asserted in an interview with EJP.

“I predict a worsening of the situation.”

�My five years of experience at the head of the CRIF has provided me with a knowledge of on the ground action, a knowledge of the problems that might confront the Jewish community in France – which aren�t necessarily the same facing other communities, but on the ground action is essential. And in addition to that, there is action with political and public authorities".

Prasquier claims to have met many leaders of Jewish communities in Europe. �All of them has their specific themes, their particular problems. But the majority think that the situation will not improve and would like to be assured of the support of the European Jewish Congress, which must be an �amplifier�.

�It�s also necessary to dedicate time and work to predict what might happen and a priority must be procuring help to safeguard Jewish institutions and buildings, synagogues, schools..., an unfortunate problem that�s proving very important for a large number of communities and not only those in the front line of news reporting like in France.�

�The problem of securing physical locations is also an issue for relatively peaceful communities,� he added.

�The EJC must be responsible for all this, it must be a representative and therefore be able to intervene,� Prasquier stressed, regretting that the EJC had not worked in cooperation with a number of communities with whom there had been no real contact. " Apart from the occasional photo opportunity...what counts are constant interactions, and these did not happen,� he said.

According to him, the president of the EJC must originate from an EU member state. �It�s very important because the EU represents a large majority of the constituent members of the EJC.�

�Today, all decisions are taken at the level of the European institutions in Brussels, where the EJC must equally be based.�

Founded in 1986 as an offshoot of the wide-reaching World Jewish Congress (WJC), the EJC has its headquarters in Paris.

Prasquier explained that, contrary to what has been the case over the course of recent years, the EJC must work in cooperation and in consultation with other Jewish organisations and institutions, citing the Joint and the Claims Conference as notable examples.

But, it lust also work with representative organisations in other countries and organisations providing support to Israel. �Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are the biggest problems experienced in certain European countries,� he added.

Aged 67, the CRIF president is a cardiologist by training. Born in Gdansk, Poland, he left the country for France with his family in 1946 after the Kielce pogrom against the Jews.

Source: European Jewish Press

Controversial Visit to Iran of Five Members of the European Parliament Cancelled

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The planned controversial visit to Iran by a delegation of five members of the European Parliament was cancelled Saturday after Tehran refused to let them meet with two jailed Iran dissidents who were awarded on Friday a prestigious human rights prize by the EU institution.

“The Iranian authorities have refused to give permission to a delegation of MEPs set to travel to Tehran to meet with this year's Sakharov Prize winners Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi, after which the delegation cancelled the visit,” the head of the parliament delegation, Finnish Green MEP Tarja Cronberg, said.

"The five MEPs were about to leave for Tehran when delegation chair (Tarja Cronberg) received a phone call from the Iranian ambassador to the EU, saying they would not be allowed to meet with the two Sakharov Prize winners," a European Parliament source said.

Sotoudeh, a 47-year-old lawyer and leading human rights campaigner, who is serving an 11-year jail sentence for conspiring against state security, and Panahi, 52, a film director who is under house arrest and has been banned from making films for 20 years, were awarded the 2012 Sakharov Prize on Friday.

The human rights and democracy prize "is a message of solidarity and recognition to a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation and who have decided to put the fate of their country before their own," European Parliament President Martin Schulz said Friday.

The Iranians were chosen by Schulz and political group leaders in the European Parliament.

Schulz warned Friday that the visit of the parliamentarians would be cancelled if the delegation was unable to meet Sotoudeh and Panahi and hand-deliver the invitation to collect the prize in Strasbourg in December.

The rights award comes on the heels of tough new European Union sanctions against Iran aimed at forcing a breakthrough in talks between global powers and Tehran on its nuclear programme.

After a biting oil embargo took effect in July, EU leaders last week endorsed new sanctions by targeting dealings with Iran's banks, shipping and gas imports.

The last visit by a European parliamentary delegation to Iran was in 2007.

The ISNA news agency quoted Hossein Sheikholeslam, international affairs advisor to the speaker of parliament, as saying that Iran had "rejected a pre-condition set by the European parliamentary delegation to meet with two prisoners".

"If the delegation agrees to visit Iran under the initially agreed conditions and agenda, then there is no objection to the visit... But we cannot accept the current pre-condition."

The delegation, led by Tarja Cronberg, included also a leftist Danish MEP Cornelia Ernst (GUE, DE), Austrian Socialist Joseph Weidenholzer, Belgian Green Isabelle Durant and Spanish Socialist Juan Fernanco Lopez Aguilar (S&D, ES), was scheduled to meet their counterparts in the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, as well as representatives of the civil society from 27 October to 2 November.

In a statement before the announced cancellation, Tarja Cronberg, who chairs the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Iran, said the delegation would « follow up on the dialogue branch of the EU's twin-track approach to Iran of sanctions and dialogue and stress the EU's commitment to human rights by raising concerns directly with decision-makers and civil society representatives.”

The planned visit to Iran had been criticised by Jewish groups and within the parliament itself.

The Parliament’s Vice President, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, from the European People’s Party (Christian Democrat) group, the largest in the assembly, stated that "any formal delegation from the European Parliament to Iran would be extremely counter-productive coming so soon after increased sanctions were announced aimed at forcing Iran�s hand to abandoning its nuclear ambitions, as well as rejecting not only human rights violations, but also repression, fundamentalism and terrorism."

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor expressed his surprise "that the European Parliament, the Union�s ultimate symbol of democracy and human rights, should be seen in any way as granting legitimacy to a regime which has shown a constant disdain for basic human rights and democratic practices in its own country while simultaneously threatening the very physical existence of its neighbours and in particular, the State of Israel."

Earlier this week, a Belgian Socialist MEP, Kathleen Van Brempt, who was supposed to join the delegation, withdrew her participation saying that while she was in favour of dialogue “this is not the right time to visit Iran."

Source: European Jewish Press

European Parliament Delegation Visit to Iran Goes On

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

A controversial trip to Iran by a European Parliament delegation will go on, a spokesperson for Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who will lead the delegation, told EJP on Friday.

The delegation of six MEPs is set to travel to Teheran on Sunday and will stay until 2. It will meet the Majlis, Iran’s parliament.

Besides Cronberg, the delegation will also include German Leftist Cornelia Ernst, Austrian Socialist Joseph Weidenholzer, Belgian Green Isabelle Durant and Spanish Socialist Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar.

In a statement, Cronberg, who chairs the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Iran, said the delegation “will follow up on the dialogue branch of the EU's twin-track approach to Iran of sanctions and dialogue and stress the EU's commitment to human rights by raising concerns directly with decision-makers and civil society representatives.”

The visit has been criticised by Jewish groups and within the parliament itself.

The Parliament’s Vice President, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, from the European People�s Party (Christian Democrat) group, the largest in the assembly, said that "any formal delegation from the European Parliament to Iran would be extremely counter-productive coming so soon after increased sanctions were announced aimed at forcing Iran�s hand to abandoning its nuclear ambitions, as well as rejecting not only human rights violations, but also repression, fundamentalism and terrorism."

Source: European Jewish Press

European Jewish Congress Urges EU to Cancel Iran Trip

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The head of the European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor called Monday for European Parliament members to cancel a visit to Iran which he suggested would bring "disgrace" to the EU, this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The visit "would send troubling messages to those groups inside and outside Iran who are risking so much in their fight for democracy, the rights of women and those of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran," Kantor said in a letter to parliament head Martin Schulz and party leaders.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Kantor Urges EU Lawmakers to Cancel Tehran Trip

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has urged the European Parliament to cancel a planned visit to Iran by a delegation. The trip by the European lawmakers to Tehran is scheduled to take place later this month. “If this visit were to be allowed to go ahead, it would send troubling messages to those groups inside and outside Iran who are risking so much in their fight for democracy, the rights of women and those of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran,” Kantor wrote in letters addressed to the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and to the chairpersons of parliamentary factions and committees.

He added: “Moreover, a visit to the Majlis (the Iranian parliament) itself, where nearly a third of the legislators are former members of the Revolutionary Guard corps and thus implicated in wide-scale human rights abuse, would bring disgrace not only on the delegation, but on the institution of the European Parliament itself.”

�There is little doubt that this visit will be portrayed as official legitimacy granted by the European Parliament for the Islamic Republic of Iran and a vital boost to its diplomatic standing at a time when democratic countries around the world are now recognizing beyond any doubt that Iran represents the most significant threat to global peace and security today,� wrote the EJC president. Kantor also noted the timing of the delegation, soon after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers decided to strengthen existing sanctions against Iran.

A 'bridge-building' delegation led by Finnish Green Party deputy Tarja Cronberg is scheduled to land Saturday in the Iranian capital for a six-day visit with members of the Iranian legislature. The trip has also sparked opposition from fellow Euro parliamentarians who accuse the Iranian regime of violating human rights and pursuing an atomic bomb to threaten Israel and rival Islamic countries. �This is scandalous,� said Struan Stevenson, a Scottish conservative and chairman of the Parliament’s Friends of a Free Iran caucus. He noted that the last time a �friendship delegation� from the European Parliament visited in Iran in 2007, the regime staged a public hanging of political prisoners.

Source: World Jewish Congress

European Jewish Leader Wants MEP Iran Trip Cancelled

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

"Moreover (such a visit) would bring disgrace not only on the delegation, but on the institution of the European Parliament itself," Kantor wrote.

The planned official parliamentary mission to Iran from October 27 to November 2 has sparked strong opposition, coming after a new package of even tougher EU sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme.

Iran would use such a visit "to show that the European Union is not serious in its policy of maintaining Iran as a pariah state," Kantor said.

Nine MEPs from all but one of the parliament's groups - the eurosceptic right-wing alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists - are planning to go on the visit, originally agreed in July, an official said last week.

The team will be headed by the president of the European Parliament-Iran group, Finland Greens MEP Tarja Cronberg.

The official said there was a "sharp" discussion on whether to go ahead with the visit but that leaders of the parliament's political groups finally had voted in favour.

The European Union last week imposed a tough package of sanctions against Iran, aiming to push global talks with Tehran on its contested nuclear programme.

Both the parliament and the bloc are constant critics of the country's human rights record.

Source: Agence France Presse

European Jewish Congress Head Awards Tolerance Honor to Balkan Leaders

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Two Balkan leaders received a prestigious tolerance award from the head of the European Jewish Congress this week.

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and former Sebian President Boris Tadic were granted the European Medal of Tolerance Tuesday, for their work fostering peace following the civil war in their region.

Moshe Kantor, EJC head, was on hand to award the honor to the two men, in his capacity as cochairman of the European Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation.

“We need to unite our efforts to fight any manifestation of extreme nationalism, discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism throughout Europe,” said EU President Martin Schulz. “Still today, in parts of Europe, we see the demons of the past raise their ugly heads. This is warning to all of us. As Edmund Burke said ‘All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.’"

Kantor praised the efforts in Eastern Europe, but cautioned that the rise of far-right, nationalist parties must still be monitored.

�The EU vision and dream, is at a crossroads,” he said.

Source: Jspace.com

EJC to French FM Fabius: Strong message required against extremist hate

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

A European Jewish Congress delegation, led by President Dr. Moshe Kantor, met with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris yesterday amid reports that anti-Semitic attacks in France have risen by 40% this year.

Dr. Kantor thanked the French Government for its ongoing response to anti-Semitic attacks. “However the rise in the number of attacks demonstrates that the perpetrators have not yet received the message.” Kantor said. “There is also a great concern that an escalation in the Middle East or a preventative military attack on Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program, either by Israel, the US or joint forces, could trigger violent attacks among these extremists against the French Jewish community.”

Kantor also raised the issue of the strengthened sanctions, intended to convince the Iranian regime to halt its efforts towards a nuclear weapons capability

�The international community must give a firm and final ultimatum for talks. At the moment, Iran feels safe because the talks are ongoing,� Kantor said. �The idea that while talks are ongoing and sanctions are strengthened, then Iran will not move forward on its nuclear and weaponization programs has been proven false. The IAEA reports, coupled with recent intelligence assessments have demonstrated that Iran is racing forward more than ever towards a nuclear weapon.�

�Talks can not be open-ended. Iran needs to hear an increasingly stronger message and firm red lines from the international community until it halts its weapons program. In less than a year, Iran will have the ability to enrich its own uranium.� Foreign Minister Fabius said he shared these concerns and agreed with the overall assessment.

After the recent attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, Kantor also discussed the growing threat of Hezbollah against Jews and other civilians and how France could join the effort to thwart its activities in Europe.

�To proscribe Hezbollah’s activities in France and Europe would assist the liberal forces in Lebanon. At the moment, according to intelligence experts, including the U.S. Government, Hezbollah is able to recruit and raise money in Europe freely,� Kantor said. �Not only does this funding contribute towards the repression inside Lebanon, its global terrorist activities, but it also helps the Syrian regime with its brutal and bloody repression.�

�France�s historic role in Lebanon and the region means that such a move would have a great effect and send a strong and moral message.�

Foreign Minister Fabius said that all European leaders are very much aware of this issue. However, he said, they are waiting for the results of the investigation in Bulgaria. The question about Hezbollah will be raised again as soon as we have some answers.

Kantor also handed the French Foreign Minister a copy of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation�s (ECTR) Model European Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance. The model law, written by prominent European jurists, is designed for adoption by the respective national legislatures in the European Union Member nations.

Foreign Minister Fabius expressed interest in the document and promised that he would study it very carefully.

Martin Schulz: �We Need Unity in Our Efforts to Fight Anti-Semitism and Racism in Europe�

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said “we need to unite our efforts to fight any manifestation of extreme nationalism, discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism throughout Europe,” in a speech at an award ceremony honouring two Balkan leaders for their work on reconciliation in South-east Europe.

“Still today, in parts of Europe, we see the demons of the past raise their ugly heads. This is warning to all of us,” Schulz said.

The medal of Tolerance was awarded by the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR) to Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and former Serbian President Boris Tadic, honouring �extraordinary and creative achievement in the promotion of tolerance.�

chultz (�� � ��) hailed the two �extraordinary men� and stressed that �there is no better place than the European Parliament to send a clear message that everything must be done to prevent war from ever happening again on our continent.�

�We will never forget the atrocities of the bloody war in former Yugoslavia in the early nineties of the past century. We will never forget the tragic consequences of war, families torn apart, children losing their parents and homes destroyed,� he said.

�Members of the European Parliament have a special responsibility for reminding the peoples of Europe about these tragic events. The European Union was founded on the commitment that war in Europe must be prevented and that reconciliation of arch-enemies is the best way to ensure peace.�

The president of the European Parliament said last Friday's awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European union "is the most salient reminder of the powerful message of reconciliation."

"The EU, no doubt, can serve as an inspiration to other regions in the world. The Western Balkans have moved towards joining this family of nations and violence and war is now almost inconceivable."

European Jezwish Congress President Moshe Kantor and former Polish President Alexsander Kwasniewski, who are co-chairmen of the ECTR, noted the connection of the award and peace in Europe.

�We recognize them because their victories are ours,� Kwasniewski said. �There would be no European Union without reconciliation. There would be no lasting peace without courage, personal leadership and inspiration stemming from people Josipovic and Tadic’s alike.�

�As Croatia joins the European Union, and we hope that Serbia will follow suit, it behooves us to recognize the heroes of our times: those who bring about reconciliation.�

Source: European Jewish Press

Jewish Groups Praise EU's Nobel Prize Win

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Israel and Jewish groups applauded the Nobel committee’s decision to award the European Union with its famous Peace Prize, though the move drew criticism from some individuals.

"The exemplary success of the EU in establishing peace in Europe after two world wars is an inspiration to the whole family of nations," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement released Sunday.

"The European Union crystallizes the way of reason and compromise through which nations can overcome hostility and ancient conflicts, and establish good neighborly relations, mutual trust and cooperation for the common good."

"The European integration project, originally conceived by such visionaries as Robert Schumann and Jean Monet, is the most ambitious and successful peace project in modern history," added American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris.

The European Jewish Congress also threw its congratulations into the appraisals.

“The European Jewish communities have felt the many evolutions, revolutions and convulsions on our continent,” said EJC President Moshe Kantor. “However, from its very inception, we welcomed a more unified Europe which has sought to bring together all Europeans from many backgrounds into one family, and I am proud to say that European Jewry embraced the ideal of an inclusive and integrated Europe.

�The Nobel Peace Prize sends a very strong message that the European Union’s achievements of turning a continent that has known so much bloodshed and conflict now deals with its challenges in a peaceful and tolerant manner.”

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder added: �Jews and members other minority communities have been among the main beneficiaries of closer European integration, and although anti-Semitism and racism continue to worry us, the European Union is - and will be in the future - our main ally in overcoming these scourges…On the international level, the EU should take this prize as an encouragement to take a more proactive and energetic stance on the important issues the world faces today, including the Iranian threat, the rise of Islamism and the worrying developments in the Middle East."

The announcement of the EU�s win was made last week. Some analysts have called it a politicized move, including Bloomberg writer Andrew Roberts, who called it a �ludicrous decision.�

Source: Jspace.com

Balkan Leaders Honoured for �Tolerance, Honesty, Moral Courage, and Reconciliation� at European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation Ceremony

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic was honoured alongside former Serbian President Boris Tadic with the second-ever European Medal of Tolerance Award Tuesday in Brussels, in recognition of the Balkan statesmen’s “significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining Tolerance and Reconciliation on the European continent”.

Conferred on them by the European Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), an independent organization uniting former European heads of states, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other tolerance-promoting individuals, European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor spoke of the Balkan War being a “bump in the road” of the European Union’s path to becoming more democratic and tolerant at a press conference announcing the honourees.

Praising both recipients for their efforts in �opening the way to building trust between Balkan nations�, former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski added that �reconciliation is a long, difficult and important process that will never be finished�, congratulating the EU on its recent Nobel Prize award, and highlighting the founding principle of the EU as centring on reconciliation. Stressing the need to create open border and open trade to accommodate the legions of displaced people across the European continent following WWII, he said �if you see the relationship today between old enemies France and Germany, you see what can be achieved through reconciliation�.

�The EU vision and dream is at a crossroads,� cautioned Kantor. Whist praising the unity between eastern and western Europe in the wake of the lifting of the Iron Curtain, he warned of the inevitable rise of influence of far-right nationalist parties amid a climate of financial crisis in Europe and beyond. �The EU of 2012 is as intolerant as ever before,� he said, highlighting the example of the entry into parliament of the extremist Greek Golden Dawn party, which openly uses Swastika iconography as its party symbol.

Talking of the need for �rules, proposals, laws� to make tolerance mandatory across the EU, he introduced ECTR�s proposals for a general law of tolerance, which was presented later Monday at an official ceremony in the presence of European Parliament President Martin Schulz, as well as the two recipients of the European Medal of Tolerance.

Expanding on the Model Law for Promotion of Tolerance, a version of which it seeks to make mandatory across all 27 member states, Chair of the Task Force in charge of its inception Yoram Dinstein said that �tolerance is the glue that cements together the bond between distinct groups in a single society�.

�Tolerance is very easy to approve of abstractly, the problem arises when you move to practically applying it to the issues of the here and now in society,� he added, explaining that no European Union treaty currently exists on the subject, due to our rapidly evolving notions of tolerance. �Views considered tolerant ten years ago are no thought as such today and vice versa,� he said.

Admitting that the proposed law was subject to negotiation of individual member states who would have to reconcile it with their national legislators, he argued that �now the EU has received the Novel Peace Prize, it must understand that without tolerance, there will always be conflict.�

A common point of reference was needed by member states, in order to establish the distinction between tolerance and its limitations, he added. The exceptions to tolerant thought and speech range from female circumcision to Burka wearing, according to the draft, which it argued provided an obstacle to crime prevention.

Another potential tolerance minefield arises from the issue of migration, he suggested. �Migrants are entitled to tolerance by society as much as anyone else, but they have a duty to integrate into their adopted society - if they�re not prepared to do so, they should be forced to leave, subject to a legal process,� he continued, adding that �integration does not mean assimilation�.

�The future of the EU is very much inter-connected to migration,� interjected Kwasniewski. �We cannot support an ageing demography without migration. Tolerance would help us in coping with inevitable migration, which is the future of a multi-cultural EU.�

�Multiu-culturalism doesn�t mean razing the culture of your adopted country, or displacing it,� reasoned Dinstein. �You can�t establish a country within a country, a migrant group within a group.�

�A dedicated centre must be established to provide migrants with a transitional period to integrate into their adopted country,� added Kantor.

The definition of tolerance itself needs to established, asserted Dinstein. Whilst current definitions of tolerance would preclude racism and religious-based bigotry, anti-Semitism must be individually stated as a separate definition, �as unlike Christianity and Islam, it�s not necessarily based on religion, but lineage and ethnic heritage,� he said, evoking Nazi definitions of what constitutes a Jew.

�Holocaust denial should be a crime,� he continued, as should �denial of any genocide which has been ruled on by an international court�.

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has occupied office since 2010, having previously presided over the democratisation of the former Communist party, to become the Social Democratic Party, over which he currently presides. He was elected into power, having campaigned for Nova Pravednost (New Justice), calling for a new social and legal framework to address the deep social injustices, corruption and organised crime, and the protection of individual and fundamental human rights.

In April 2010, Josipovic met with the Bosnian Croat Catholic archbishop cardinal Vinko Puljić and the head of the Islamic Community reis Mustafa Cerić and the three made a joint visit at the sites of Ahmići massacre and Križančevo selo killings, and paid respect to the victims.[16] Ivo Josipović made an official visit to Bosnia during which he addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[17] and in his speech he expressed a "deep regret" for Croatia's involvement in efforts to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, resulting in the Croat-Bosniak war and suffering for many people on both sides, for which move he was criticised by political rivals, who accused him of breaching the Croatian constitution.

During a visit to Israel in February 2012, Josipovic also apologized for the Ustaše crimes against Jews in 1940's.

Former Serbian President Boris Tadic served almost two terms as president, ending in his resignation in April 2012. He has been a staunch supporter of Serbia�s accession talks to the EU. In 2004, he made an official apology on a trip to Bosnia-Herzigovina to all those who suffered as a result of crimes committed in the name of the Serbian people. He has since further spoken out against the breakup of Bosnia-Herzegovina, instead defending its territorial integrity.

Tadić presided during the independence referendum in Montenegro (2006). He was the first foreign head of state to visit Montenegro after it became independent on 8 June, and promised to continue friendly relations. Serbia declared independence as well, and Tadić attended the first raising of the flag of Serbia at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In 2007, he similarly issued an apology to Croatia for any crimes committed in Serbia's name during the war in Croatia. He has declared that all war criminals should face trial by an international court for their crimes and personally handed over former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague to be tried on war crime charges in relation to his activities in wars with Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

The inaugural European medal of tolerance was conferred on King Juan Carlos I of Spain in 2010 for his lifelong dedication and devotion to the issues of tolerance and political reconciliation.

Source: European Jewish Press

President of Croatia and Former President of Serbia to Receive Medal of Tolerance Award

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR) will present Tuesday its 2012 Medal of Tolerance Award to the President of Croatia, Ivo Josipović and the former President of Serbia Boris Tadic.

According to the ECTR, the two Balkan leaders are being recognized as "examples of tolerance, honesty, moral courage, and reconciliation, especially during the current European economic difficulties which is leading to so much unrest on the continent."

The awards will be bestowed by the co-chairmen of the ECTR, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasśniewski, and the President of the European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor at a ceremony in the European Parliament in the presence of the EU assembly’s president Martin Schulz.

"We aim to send a strong message that despite the current difficulties in Europe, a strong and brave leadership can solve problems peacefully," Kantor said.

The First European medal of tolerance was conferred on King Juan Carlos I of Spain for his lifelong dedication and devotion to the issues of tolerance and political reconciliation.

"All these award recipients have in common is that they led during a time of uncertainty not long after conflict and they brought their people forward in peace and tolerance through difficult chapters in their history."

At the same event, the ECTR will present a Model European Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance. The model law, written by prominent European jurists, is designed for adoption by the respective national legislatures in the European Union Member nations.

The European Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation is a non-governmental organisation comprised of former heads of European states, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other world renowned individuals for their achievements in promoting tolerance. The council laid out a vision whereby the average citizen of Europe would not be a bystander to intolerance, but rather work against acts of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Source: European Jewish Press

Israel, Jewish Groups Congratulate EU on Peace Prize

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Israel and Jewish organizations congratulated the European Union for being awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

"The exemplary success of the E.U. in establishing peace in Europe after two world wars is an inspiration to the whole family of nations," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement released Sunday. "The European Union crystallizes the way of reason and compromise through which nations can overcome hostility and ancient conflicts, and establish good neighborly relations, mutual trust and cooperation for the common good."

The ministry also called on the EU to maintain "vigilance in the face of displays of racism and anti-Semitism within its borders," and added that Israel "expect(s) the E.U. to continue its efforts for promoting peace in the Middle East, through a supportive approach and understanding of the special sensitivities of the area."

The peace prize was awarded to the 27-nation bloc for being a key component in transforming Europe from a "continent of wars to a continent of peace," Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said last Friday in announcing the award in Oslo.

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Cantor also sent his congratulations.

“The European Jewish communities have felt the many evolutions, revolutions and convulsions on our continent,” Kantor said. “However, from its very inception, we welcomed a more unified Europe which has sought to bring together all Europeans from many backgrounds into one family, and I am proud to say that European Jewry embraced the ideal of an inclusive and integrated Europe.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder praised the decision to award the prize to the EU.

�Jews and members other minority communities have been among the main beneficiaries of closer European integration, and although anti-Semitism and racism continue to worry us, the European Union is -- and will be in the future -- our main ally in overcoming these scourges,� Lauder said. "On the international level, the E.U. should take this prize as an encouragement to take a more proactive and energetic stance on the important issues the world faces today, including the Iranian threat, the rise of Islamism and the worrying developments in the Middle East."

The prize, worth $1.2 million, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jewish Groups Welcome Decision to Award the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the European Jewish Congress (EJC) welcomed the decision by the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union.

Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland announced the prize on Friday praising the European Union and its forerunners "to have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe."

"The stabilizing part played by the European Union has helped to transform a once-torn Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace," he said.

"Over a seventy-year period, Germany and France had fought three wars. Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners," he said.

This year's prize decision came as a suprise as the EU is currently facing a serious economic and budgetary crisis.

In a first reaction, European Union Council President Herman Van Rompuy said that the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize was a tribute to more than six decades of EU countries acting to "overcome war and divisions."

The prize recognised "the unique effort by ever more European states to overcome war and divisions and to jointly shape a continent of peace and prosperity," Van Rompuy said on Twitter after the award was announced in Oslo.

"The EU is an unique project that replaced war with peace, hate with solidarity. Overwhelming emotion for awarding of Nobel prize to EU,” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S.Lauder declared: “The committee may have made controversial decisions in the past years concerning this very important prize, but this one cannot but be warmly welcomed. European integration has been the main reason why the European continent has become a haven of peace, freedom and prosperity nobody would have dreamt of 60 years ago.”

Lauder went on to say: “When the Iron Curtain was brought down and the dictatorial regimes in Central and Eastern Europe swept away, it was the EU that provided a perspective for the new democracies and restrained chauvinistic temptations. Today, despite the economic and financial crisis, the European Union continues to provide an example to other regions in the world that reconciliation is possible if there is the political will for it."

�Jews and members other minority communities have been among the main beneficiaries closer European integration, and although anti-Semitism and racism continue to worry us, the European Union is - and will be in the future - our main ally in overcoming these scourges,� the WJC president stated, adding:

"On the international level, the EU should take this prize as an encouragement to take a more proactive and energetic stance on the important issues the world faces today, including the Iranian threat, the rise of Islamism and the worrying developments in the Middle East. »

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor declared: �The European Jewish communities have felt the many evolutions, revolutions and convulsions on our continent. However, from its very inception, we welcomed a more unified Europe which has sought to bring together all Europeans from many backgrounds into one family and I am proud to say that European Jewry embraced the ideal of an inclusive and integrated Europe.�

Source: European Jewish Press

Reaction as EU wins Peace Prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for its long-term role in uniting the continent, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday, an award seen as morale boost for the bloc as it struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

Following are reactions to the award:

FORMER GERMAN CHANCELLOR HELMUT KOHL

"It is a wise and far-sighted decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union this year. I am very pleased at this decision. The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 for the EU is above all a confirmation for the European peace project.

"It is also encouragement for all of us, to continue on the path to a united Europe, that is to say, to stick to the ever closer ties on our continent and to develop Europe despite some difficulties and problems which must yet be overcome.

"As Europeans we all have reason to be proud today. I am proud, and I wish for God's blessing for us on our further path to a united Europe."

FORMER EUROPEAN COMMISSION CHIEF JACQUES DELORS

"Europe carries on despite the crises. It's not a long calm river, but it is consolidating.

"I think all the heads of state and populations will take this award as an encouragement. I am very emotional. The last three decades have been very difficult."

GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER GUIDO WESTERWELLE

"That is a fantastic decision which makes me proud and happy. European integration is the most successful project for peace in history.

"Freedom and Peace have grown out of the ruins of two devastating world wars and erstwhile enemies became good friends and inseparable partners.

"The Nobel Prize is a great incentive at this particular moment in time to solve our own problems, to be an example with our European model of cooperation and to strengthen our European efforts for a peaceful evolution of the world."

BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ELIO DI RUPO

"This shows that the European project continues to inspire the world even today. It's a project which started as a dream of a handful of politicians looking for peace and prosperity for all of their fellow citizens that has grown to a powerful symbol of cooperation and progress.

"Europe, a continent that was once taken apart by terrible wars, is thanks to the European Union today a symbol of peaceful debate and conflict resolution to the whole world.

"In these difficult economic times, where the European Union is confronted with the greatest challenges in its existence, the Union shows that we can only via mutual solidarity and dialogue can make tomorrow better than today.

"The Prime Minister is also proud. Belgium, as one of the founding members of the EU has always been a front runner and source of inspiration in the process of European unification.

"To make Europe loved by its citizens, they have to find themselves in Europe. Let the prize be an inspiration to come closer to this goal. The European Union has once again to bring hope and make people dream."

MARTIN CALLANAN, LEADER OF THE EUROSCEPTIC CONSERVATIVES AND REFORMISTS PARTY IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

"The Nobel committee is a little late for an April fools joke. Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified. Today it is downright out of touch.

"Presumably this prize is for the peace and harmony on the streets of Athens and Madrid.

"The EU's policies have exacerbated the fallout of the financial crisis and led to social unrest that we haven't seen for a generation.

"The Nobel Peace Prize was devalued when it was given to newly-elected Barack Obama. By giving the prize to the EU the Nobel committee has undermined the excellent work of the other deserving winners of this prize."

FREDERIK HEFFERMEHL, OUTSPOKEN NORWEGIAN CRITIC OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

"This is the most striking example of the prize having been appropriated by the Norwegian political elite. The elite have no interest in Nobel."

WOUT NOALMANS, BELGIAN ENGINEER IN BRUSSELS, 25

"The EU isn't doing anything in Syria and it's quite hypocritical that they get a prize. They don't have a lot of influence in the world."

FORMER GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HANS-DIETRICH GENSCHER

"Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is a particularly happy and significant decision. It honours the peace-fostering role of European togetherness, which has fostered peace for the European continent and for other regions of the world.

"The awarding of the peace prize is also a clear signal to those in Europe, who in alluding to supposed national interests, endanger the work of European unity."

BRITAIN'S OPPOSITION FINANCE SPOKESMAN ED BALLS

"They'll be cheering in Athens tonight, won't they."

DANISH EUROPE MINISTER NICOLAI WAMMEN

"We can of course laugh at this, and there are many problems in the EU. It is certainly not a perfect union but it is a strong message that a lot has gone right also since the creation of the EU."

EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF CATHERINE ASHTON

"I am delighted at the news that the European Union has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of its work on reconciliation, democracy, promotion of human rights and in enlarging the area of peace and stability across the continent.

"In the countries of the EU, historic enemies have become close partners and friends.

"I am proud to be part of continuing this work. The creation of the European External Action Service has enabled us to develop a comprehensive approach to better promote Europe's core values throughout the world.

"I will continue to work tirelessly to drive this process forward."

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN

"I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to the European Union on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The European Union has played a vital role in healing the wounds of history and promoting peace, reconciliation and cooperation across Europe.

"It has contributed to the advancement of freedom, democracy and human rights across the continent and beyond.

"From the outset, NATO and the European Union have shared common values and helped shape the new Europe. The European Union is a unique and essential partner for NATO. I look forward to strengthening our strategic partnership further, as agreed by our two organisations, to promote peace, stability and security."

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

"We are all very proud that the efforts of the EU for keeping the peace in Europe are rewarded.

"Europe got through two civil wars in the 20th century and we have established peace thanks to the European Union. So the European Union is the biggest peacemaker in history."

EU ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER OLLI REHN

"Despite some gloom in the economy in Europe, still this is a great day for Europe. This Nobel Peace Prize has apparently been awarded for the contribution of the European Union over the past 60 years to the peace and reconciliation and democracy and human rights. I am very proud of these European values which are also universal human values. This is a proud day for every European."

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MARTIN SCHULZ

"This Nobel Peace Prize is for all EU citizens. We in the European Parliament are deeply touched. The European Union has reunited the continent through peaceful means and brought arch enemies together. This historic act of reunification has been rightfully recognised.

"The values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and the respect for human rights are absolutely fundamental to the European Union. These fundamental values underpin all of the European Union's activities both internally and in our external policies.

"Several nations are freely negotiating accession to the European Union, a sign that despite challenging economic conditions, the European Union is a magnet for stability, prosperity and democracy.

"The EU's principles and values of reconciliation can serve as an inspiration to other regions in the world. From the Balkans to the Caucasus, the EU serves as a beacon for democracy and reconciliation."

UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY LEADER NIGEL FARAGE

"This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humour. The EU may be getting the booby prize for peace because it sure hasn't created prosperity. The EU has created poverty and unemployment for millions.

"In the last two years the EU has caused huge animosity between the countries of Northern and Southern Europe. Just look at Frau Merkel being welcomed with Nazi flags in Athens, and German newspapers slagging off the Greeks as work-shy wonders.

"After watching European Council President Van Rompuy cheerleading for war in Libya with Colonel Gaddafi, this idea of the EU getting a Nobel Peace is ridiculous."

JAN TECHAU, EUROPEAN DIRECTOR OF THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE

"It gives the EU a morale boost at a time when it has been shaken to its core. The prize is an encouragement to the EU to continue its peace-generating integration work.

"It is a reminder to eurosceptics to consider the real merits of the union they so despise, and it is an appeal to Europe to finally become a serious strategic player in the world."

MOSHE KANTOR, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN JEWISH CONGRESS

"The European Jewish communities have felt the many evolutions, revolutions and convulsions on our continent.

"The Nobel Peace Prize sends a very strong message that the European Union's achievements of turning a continent that has known so much bloodshed and conflict now deals with its challenges in a peaceful and tolerant manner."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JOSE MANUEL BARROSO ON TWITTER, WHERE HE HAS 14,900 FOLLOWERS AND RISING:

"It is a great honour for the whole of the EU, all 500 million citizens, to be awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize."

FORMER GERMAN CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER

"This is an important and right decision by the Nobel Prize Committee and a big encouragement for the people in Europe. It comes at the right time for closer togetherness in Europe and it strengthens those powers that are pushing for closer integration in the European Union.

"It's a clear rejection of nationalism and the sole pursuit of national interest. The Nobel Prize Committee deserves respect for this decision.

"And all levels of decision making in the European Union must take this high award as incentive to continue with their fullest power the path to closer integration.

"In this way the European Union can serve as a role model for other regions for a socially, economically, culturally and politically successful community."

FORMER FRENCH PRESIDENT VALERY GISCARD D'ESTAING

"It is right that this extraordinary effort that has been accomplished by the Europeans and their leaders to establish a lasting peace on their continent - historically ravaged by war - is rewarded and honoured."

CARL DEVOS, POLITICS PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHENT

"It's one of the most intelligent awards that has been given and it surely is a celebration and an official recommendation for the importance that the European Union has in keeping world peace, especially in Europe.

"Secondly they have exported a way of making compromises of trying to avoid conflict, of trying to keep talking with each other that you can call a European recipe or a European way of doing business, or a European way of settling conflicts, not by using force like some other regions or world leaders have done.

"As a military force, the European Union is quite weak and it has used that disadvantage to turn it into an advantage and to show the world that you can be important and have influence by just talking and negotiating and renegotiating with people."

(Reporting by Reuters newsrooms)

Source: Reuters

European Jewry Calls for HR Support

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Amid a recent escalation of attacks on the rights of Jews to practice their religion across the European continent, the European Jewish Congress has called on senior European leaders to apply the full force of human rights accords which form the basis of a democratic Europe.

In letters addressed to European Parliament President, Martin Schulz; the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso; the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy; and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor called on the European leaders to work towards compromise and dialogue on these issues.

Similar letters were also sent to heads of government across Europe which have recently seen attempts to proscribe Jewish religious practice.

Recent attempts both in the courts and in national legislatures have targeted both the Jewish method of slaughter for meat known as Shechita as well as the practice of circumcision, both central tenets of Jewish practice which enable the continuance of thriving Jewish communities in Europe.

“These assaults on our religion are causing untold anxiety to Jewish communities across Europe who are successfully balancing their adherence to European law and principles of their Jewish faith,” Dr. Kantor wrote.

Circumcision came under assault earlier this year when a German regional court in Cologne ruled that circumcisions according to religious rites were unlawful earlier. This soon spread to neighboring countries like Austria and Switzerland with hospitals in certain areas suspending the practice. It has since arisen in other European countries, including in Scandinavia. Last week, the main Finnish opposition political party, the True Finns, expressed their intention to present a bill to parliament that would make religious circumcision a criminal offense.

�The basic right of freedom of religious expression is not only enshrined in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and in the European Convention of Human Rights but is also heavily protected by national legislation in member states,� Kantor wrote, adding that the best way to stem the assault is through dialogue, citing the model of the successful agreement between the Dutch Government and the Jewish community which aborted parliamentary attempts to proscribe kosher slaughter in The Netherlands.

�This model in The Netherlands provides a positive prototype for national governments and pan-European organizations to resolve these issues,� Kantor wrote. �In the highest spirit of European tolerance and conciliation we are happy to discuss these issues further with you and express our concerns in a more detailed manner in the hope that we can secure a resolution to allow for the full freedom to continue practicing our religion.�

As part of what it termed a critical campaign for Jewish communities in Europe, various EJC delegations headed by Dr. Kantor have met with senior European officials on this and related issues.

The European Jewish Congress is the democratically-elected representative organization of European Jewry.

Source: J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service

European Jewry Calls for HR Support

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Similar letters were also sent to heads of government across Europe which have recently seen attempts to proscribe Jewish religious practice.

“The basic right of freedom of religious expression is not only enshrined in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and in the European Convention of Human Rights but is also heavily protected by national legislation in member states,” Kantor wrote, adding that the best way to stem the assault is through dialogue, citing the model of the successful agreement between the Dutch Government and the Jewish community which aborted parliamentary attempts to proscribe kosher slaughter in The Netherlands.

As part of what it termed a critical campaign for Jewish communities in Europe, various EJC delegations headed by Dr. Kantor have met with senior European officials on this and related issues.

The European Jewish Congress is the democratically-elected representative organization of European Jewry.

Source: J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service

Kantor Urges Europeans to Enter into Dialogue over "Assault on Religion"

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

After the recent attempts to outlaw religious circumcision in parts of Europe, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has written a letter to European leaders calling for dialogue and mutual agreement on the issue which has escalated over the last few months. The letter was sent to national leaders as well as senior EU officials, including European Parliament President Martin Schulz, the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.

In the letter, Kantor writes that these “assaults on our religion are causing untold anxiety to Jewish communities across Europe who are successfully balancing their adherence to European law and principles of their Jewish faith.” Circumcision came under assault when a regional German court in Cologne ruled that religious circumcisions were unlawful earlier in the year. This soon spread to neighboring countries like Austria and Switzerland and has since arisen in other European countries, including Scandinavia. Most recently, the Finnish political party True Finns expressed its intention to present a bill to parliament that would make ritual circumcision a criminal offense.

“The basic right of freedom of religious expression is not only enshrined in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and in the European Convention of Human Rights but is also heavily protected by national legislation in member states,” Kantor wrote, saying that the best way to stem the assault is through dialogue, citing the model of the mutual agreement between the Dutch Government and the Jewish community over attempts to proscribe kosher slaughter in the Netherlands.

�In the highest spirit of European tolerance and conciliation we are happy to discuss these issues further with you and express our concerns in a more detailed manner in the hope that we can secure a resolution to allow for the full freedom to continue practicing our religion.� Kantor wrote.

In addition to sending the letters, an EJC delegation headed by Kantor met with senior European officials on this and related issues.

Source: World Jewish Congress

EJC President Calls on European Leaders for Dialogue and Mutual Agreement on the Issue of Jewish Circumcision

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The best way to stem the assault on Jewish circumcision is through dialogue, EJC President Moshe Kantor said, citing the model of the mutual agreement between the Dutch Government and the Jewish community over attempts to proscribe kosher slaughter in Holland.

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has written a letter to several European leaders calling for dialogue and mutual agreement on the issue of Jewish circumcision which has escalated over the last few months.

Circumcision came under assault earlier this year when a regional German court in Cologne ruled that ritual circumcisions were unlawful. The attempts to proscribe Jewish circumcision spread to neighboring countries like Austria and Switzerland and has since arisen in other European countries, including Scandinavia.

Most recently, the Finnish political party, the True Finns, have expressed their intention to present a bill to parliament that would make ritual circumcision a criminal offense.

In his letter, Kantor wrote that these “assaults on our religion are causing untold anxiety to Jewish communities across Europe who are successfully balancing their adherence to European law and principles of their Jewish faith.”

The best way to stem the assault is through dialogue, Kantor said, citing the model of the mutual agreement between the Dutch Government and the Jewish community over attempts to proscribe kosher slaughter in Holland.

The letter was sent to European national leaders as well as senior European leaders, including, European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland.

Source: European Jewish Press

Bomb Attack on Jewish Center in Malmo : Jewish Organizations Call on Sweden �to Stand by Its Jewish Community and Give it the Protection It Needs�

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

A bomb attack against a Jewish community center in the city of Malmo, in the south of Sweden, was strongly condemned by Jewish organisations and described as a "threat to Jewish life in Europe" following several other anti-Semitic incidents over the continent.

Early on Friday morning, an explosive device was detonated outside the Jewish center that houses apartments, a kindergarten and meeting rooms, and bricks were thrown at its windows.

The explosion was apparently heard several blocks away and cracked the bullet-proof main door of the Jewish Community Centre.

Swedish police later arrested two persons in connection with the incident but believes more people were involved.

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder called on Sweden to reinforce the protection of its Jewish sites. “For a number of years now, Malmo has been a hotspot for anti-Jewish activities. The negative climate for Jews there continues to grow. Jews are frightened to wear kippahs or otherwise show their religious affiliation. It is high time that the Swedish authorities defend the rights of their Jewish citizens and give them the protection that is necessary, » he said.

Lauder reminded that only a few days ago, several hundred people took to the streets to protest against the harassment to which Jews in this city are regularly subjected.

"There is real fear among the Jewish population of Malmo, and it is growing – not least because not a lot has been done to address the issue," Lauder said.

Malmo’s Jewish community has endured a number of attacks in recent months and years, including verbal abuse as well as the desecration of a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery.

"The explosion of Malmo follows an unprecedented wave of attacks against Jews and Jewish targets in recent months, since the murders in Toulouse," said European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Moshe Kantor, mentioning an attack on Jewish schoolchildren in Paris, a man and his six year old daughter in Berlin and a rabbi in Vienna.

Stressing that "the Jewish community in Europe is under attack," he continued by saying that "there is a real threat to Jewish communal life in parts of Europe and not enough is being done to protect it. A threat to Jewish life in Europe is a threat to the foundations of Europe."

"While leaders are trying to ascertain the barriers of freedom of expression after the anti-Islam film, Jews are in grave danger, and this is not receiving the same level of attention. While discussing different rights it should be remembered that the right to life is above all and there are those who wish to rob the Jews of even this right in Europe."

"The authorities need to take urgent action on a national and pan-European basis," Kantor said, adding however that the Mayor of Malmo, whiose comments have been percieved as legitimizing anti-Semitic attacks, «has created an atmosphere where Jews feel threatened without sufficient protection or understanding.”

“We call on the local authorities to take all measures possible to protect the Jewish community in Malmo and our institutions,” said Lena Posner, President of the Jewish Community in Sweden, �There must be a zero tolerance against acts of hate and anti-Semitism in the city.�

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) expressed its solidarity with the 700-member Jewish community and its Rabbi, who has been incessantly targetted.

According to the SWC, Rabbi Schneur Kesselman and his children have been physically and verbally assaulted some fifteen times in the last year. « This Yom Kippur, his newly purchased car was vandalized with engravings including "Palestina", it said.

Following several anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo, including a a firebombing of the synagogue and assaults on a pro-Israel demonstration, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre met in December 2011 with the city’s mayor, law enforcement officials, the Jewish community and Muslim and Roma leaders.

The Centre's Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and its Director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, also met with Swedish Justice Minister, Beatrice Ask in Stockholm, seeking a commitment to providing physical security for Jewish institutions.

The Centre also advised the Minister that - due to the continued provocations of Malmo Mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, in constantly introducing the Middle East conflict into local discourse and thereby exacerbating tensions among the 70,000 Muslim community - it was imposing a travel advisory on Malmo.

Samuels, in March 2011, accompanied US President Obama's Special Envoy on Antisemitism, Hannah Rosenthal, to meetings with Muslim and other minority leaders in the city.

The Wiesenthal Centre als felt vindicated in that physical security of the synagogue is now partly provided by the central government in Stockholm. "Yet theMayor's continued indifference, the ban on cameras due to privacy considerations and the lack of a police presence has not prevented this new attack, » the Centre said, appealing to the Sewish authorities � to provide permanent police surveillance as in other endangered communities across Europe."

"We are monitoring the situation and, especially, the reaction of the Mayor ... Whether it was Ahmadinejad's Yom Kippur hate-speech at the United Nations or local sentiment fed by Islamist or other racist websites, we await rigourous

condemnation and expressions of sympathy from Muslim leaders and a prompt prosecution of the perpetrators. In the meantime, the Centre's travel advisory remains in place", said Shimon Samuels.

Source: European Jewish Press

European Jewish Conference Statement on Malmo

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor has condemned as unacceptable the unbearable escalation against the European Jewish community after an explosion rocked Malmo’s Jewish community building this morning.

“The explosion of Malmo follows an unprecedented wave of attacks against Jews and Jewish targets in recent months, since the murders in Toulouse,” Kantor said. “The Jewish community in Europe is under attack, there is a real threat to Jewish communal life in parts of Europe and not enough is being done to protect it. A threat to Jewish life in Europe is a threat to the foundations of Europe.”

�While leaders are trying to ascertain the barriers of freedom of expression after the anti-Islam film, Jews are in grave danger, and this is not receiving the same level of attention. While discussing different rights it should be remembered that the right to life is above all and there are those who wish to rob the Jews of even this right in Europe.�

Recent attacks against Jews in Europe have included an attack on Jewish schoolchildren in Paris, a man and his six year old daughter in Berlin and a rabbi in Vienna.

�The authorities need to take urgent action on a national and pan-European basis,� Kantor said. �However, before there is a way, there must be a will, and the Mayor of Malmo has created an atmosphere where Jews feel threatened without sufficient protection or understanding.�

Malmo Mayor Ilmar Reepalu has a history of comments which have been perceived as excusing and legitimizing waves of anti-Semitic attacks against Jews.

�We call on the local authorities to take all measures possible to protect the Jewish community in Malmo and our institutions,� said Lena Posner, President of the Jewish Community in Sweden, �There must be a zero tolerance against acts of hate and anti-Semitism in the city.�

The EJC is currently meeting with leaders at the national and European level, to ensure the allocation of resources and to prioritize this issue, in levels of prevention, enforcement and reaction to these crimes.

Source: J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service

EJC President European Jewish Congress Calls For 'Clear Division' Between Incitement and Offensive Material

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

EJC Calls for Clear Division between Incitement & Offensive Material after Firebomb Attack on Jewish Supermarket in Paris

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The President of the European Jewish Congress, Dr. Moshe Kantor, says that there needs to be a clear distinction between incitement to hatred and violence and material deemed offensive to a particular religion, after a firebomb attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

The attack happened on the day that French magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad a week after an anti-Islam film set off waves of violent protests in Muslim communities across the world.

“Unfortunately, today’s attack on the Jewish supermarket in Paris is another reminder of the hatred of Jews that still permeates sections of European society,” Kantor said. “During the last week the debate has been about the parameters of materials deemed offensive to a particular religion, but nothing has been said about the constant incitement to hate and violence that should be dealt with immediately.”

�There is an irony that many who declare the deepest offense to these attacks on Islam are frequently involved with the most dangerous forms of incitement that breeds the murder of children in Toulouse, shooting at a synagogue in Oslo, the beating of a rabbi in Berlin and a firebomb attack on Jewish businesses.�

Only a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Kantor led a large gathering of senior European Jewish and Muslim leaders to combat increasing hate, violence and extremism.

�Freedom of speech is one of the deepest core values of all Europeans, and we should protect it whenever possible,� Kantor said. �However, the clear line should be not when hate speech spurns one to violence in reaction, but when hate speech calls on individuals to act violently and even murderously against people of another faith or community.�

�A deep conversation needs to take place on the parameters of the freedom speech, but they should take place as a result of the recognized and organized incitement that led to acts like the Toulouse murders and not as a result of a poorly-made and religiously offensive film made by a few individuals.�

Source: The Yeshiva World

In Rosh Hashanah Greeting, EU Commission President Warns Of Rise of Racism and Anti-Semitism

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso warned of the rise of racism and anti-Semitism due to the economic problems in Europe, in a greeting message to the European Jewry on the occasion of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins Sunday at sundown.

"At a very difficult time, both economically and socially, when some people, even within Europe, are tempted to reconnect with old demons – populism, racism and anti-Semitism -, we need more than ever to uphold, to protect and to promote together our common ideals of peace, tolerance, reconciliation and respect for human dignity," the head of the EU’s executive branch wrote in a letter to the European Jewish Congress (EJC).

"This is the overwhelming purpose of the European Union and represents the key tenets of my political and personal philosophy," he added.

Barroso’s letter also lays out the EU Commission President�s respect for the Jewish people and Judaism.

"I feel enormous respect for these pillars of your faith and belief and consider that Europe should be built on many of these principles: the richness of history, the weight of the past, the power of remembrance, the promise of a new start and of a better future," he wrote.

The greeting comes a week after EJC President Moshe Kantor warned that racism and anti-Semitism were on the rise in Europe, during a gathering of European Jewish and Muslim leaders in Paris.

Kantor said that communal and religious leaders have to be part of the solution.

"We, as leaders, have the power and the responsibility to create change. In our synagogues, in our mosques, in sending the right messages," Kantor said during the gathering. "It is the responsibility of all of us to stand up and make loud our protest."

Source: European Jewish Press

European Commission Chief Warns Of Rise in Anti-Semitism

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

In a Rosh Hashanah greeting, the president of the European Commission warned of a rise of racism and anti-Semitism in Europe.

“At a very difficult time, both economically and socially, when some people, even within Europe, are tempted to reconnect with old demons -- populism, racism and anti-Semitism -- we need more than ever to uphold, to protect and to promote together our common ideals of peace, tolerance, reconciliation and respect for human dignity,” Jose Manuel Barroso wrote in a message sent Tuesday to the European Jewish Congress.

The European Commission is the European Union's executive body.

Barroso's message came a week after EJC President Moshe Kantor warned that racism and anti-Semitism were on the rise. Speaking during a large gathering of senior European Jewish and Muslim leaders held in Paris, Kantor said that communal and religious leaders have to be part of the solution.

In his letter, Barroso also noted his respect for the Jewish people.

“I feel enormous respect for these pillars of your faith and belief and consider that Europe should be built on many of these principles: the richness of history, the weight of the past, the power of remembrance, the promise of a new start and of a better future,” he wrote.

Source: JTA

Rabbis and Imams Meet In Paris to Ease Interreligious Tensions

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Meeting comes after a rabbi and several Jewish students were attacked in Berlin by a group of Arab youths

Guests at the Paris Hilton hotel had no idea what the fuss in the luxurious lobby was all about. Last Tuesday some 20 armed police officers guarded the entrance to the lobby. Experienced observers might have also noticed Shin Bet security service officers examining the passersby.

Still, it was a strange sight. Eighty senior religious officials, half of them Jewish and the other half Muslim, formed a tight group with their beards, yarmulkes, black hats and suits, jellabiyas, hijabs and turbans. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. One of the men introduced himself with the words, "Salam aleikum, I'm the British mufti."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm the Chief Rabbi of Belgium," came the cordial answer.

Suddenly several policemen entered the lobby and one of them whispered something to one of the organizers. A rabbi said, "Yalla, lets go," out loud, and the group left the place, toward the Hotel de Ville, the breathtaking 14th century Paris municipality building. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress that unites 42 communities then welcomed the guests of the special convention of European Muslim and Jewish leaders:

"We, Muslims and Jews, stand together and tell our rivals: 'You cannot change our culture, tradition and religion.' Whoever wishes to tear us away from our tradition tears away a rich mosaic that is the base of Western society."

Kantor was addressing the common struggle of the communities against European efforts to ban ancient rituals such as circumcision and kosher slaughter of animals.

But there are other reasons for the convention: the tension between the communities worsened recently when a rabbi and several Jewish students were attacked in Berlin by a group of Arab youths. The Muslims, too, suffer from harassment from the extreme right and report a wave of anti-Islamic phobia in the continent.

Two of the tribal elders sat next to each other in the first row: Yitzchak Haleva, the chief rabbi of Turkey, and British Imam Abdul-Jalil Sajid. "We must find a solution to the threats against our two religions," Haleva said. "Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia threaten not only the future of Europe, but might bring on the destruction of the entire human race."

Sajid responded by saying: "We're cousins in blood and brothers by fate ... Only dialogue can help us overcome our differences."

Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grande Synagogue de Paris, came to "talk and listen, in the hope of creating a new, better world," but notes that the good atmosphere does not reflect reality: "There are extremist mosques out there that don't allow the younger generation to think freely and fill their minds with all sorts of ideas," he says. "Our role is not to despair. That's the difference between human beings and beasts: We can talk."

His colleague, Florence's chief rabbi, Yosef Levi, adds that "we cannot allow the tensions in the Middle East to reflect on our communities. We have to live in peace here, in a pluralistic Europe."

The next generation was also present. These rabbis and Imams speak perfect English, and are adamant they will cooperate despite the difficulties. Austrian Ilya Zisrovski established the "Muslim-Jewish Committee" three years ago as a "project intended to bring together the next generation."

A hundred representatives from 35 countries attended the committee's two conventions, including Imams from "Iran, Saudi Arabi, Lebanon and Indonesia who take a personal risk."

Zisrovski speaks German with Mussa El-Hassan Diab, who established the "Imam training program," in Osnabruck, Germany. "The program is for imams arriving in Germany from places like Morocco and Turkey," he explains. "They understand religious needs but are unaware of the lifestyle of young Muslims in Germany. We try to bridge this cultural gap and through them reach the younger generation."

Still, it's not always easy to be a liberal Muslim leader: "I was criticized when I wrote in an Austrian newspaper that there is anti-Semitism in the Muslim community in Austria - but the truth must be told."

This "truth" was witnessed by Rabbi Avraham Weill from Toulouse, where four Jews were murdered last March. "In Toulouse there is no contact between the two religions," he says. "Unfortunately, there are extremists there who cannot hear or understand. There's an atmosphere of fear."

The six-man Israeli delegation sat together during lunch. They arrived as observers to learn from their European colleagues and share their experience from the stormy Middle East. Sheikh Samir Aasi from Acre says that "yes, there is an argument, and there are issues we disagree on, but religion is a symbol of love and peace, and that's why we're here to sit and talk."

Mohammed Kiwan, Imam of Majd el Krum, agrees: "If this convention prevents even one act of hostility - that will be enough. But I'm positive it will achieve much more than that."

Rabbi David Abuhatzera of Haifa shared the experience of preventing tension in his city through dialogue. Rabbi Shimon Elmaleh of Nesher was moved to see the Jewish and Muslim representatives holding discussions: "It proves that we have an instrument that needs to be filled with content. Ultimately, we all have but one God."

Source: Haaretz.com

European Jewish Leader Urges 'Compromises'

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, urged dozens of imams and rabbis to accept “compromises” in negotiating religious liberties in Europe.

“We are ready to compromise in dialogue with European leaders,” Kantor said Tuesday at a event attended by dozens of Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Paris. Recent compromises are �a good model to build on,� he added.

Kantor referenced a controversial deal recently reached in the Netherlands on ritual slaughter. Ratified in June by the Dutch Senate, it set a time limit on how long an animal is left to die after its throat is cut in ritual slaughter, among other stipulations. Judaism and Islam require animals be fully conscious when slaughtered – a practice that animal rights activists call cruel.

Though other rabbis approved the deal, the chief rabbi of Amsterdam, Aryeh Ralbag, and other prominent rabbis criticized it as �interference� by the Dutch government. But Kantor said that �I hope this model will be adopted by all countries of good will.� He added that Muslims and Jews �should never agree to change their faiths.�

EJC organized the event, the Second Gathering of European Jewish and Muslim Leaders, with the Great Mosque of Paris and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. At the conference, extremism and �attacks against religious expression across the European continent� will be discussed, EJC said in a statement.

The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, said that �Historically, Islamophobia is connected to the twin bombings of 2001, but it found justification in the book of Samuel Huntington, ‘Clash of Civilizations.’ � He added that Muslims must reject extremist Salafites.

Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, said that �since 9/11, American Muslims have been vilified and targeted.� American Jewry was the first to speak out against some expression of Islamophobia, he added.

Source: Forward

In Paris, Jewish and Muslim Leaders Discussed Issues of Mutual Concern

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor told a gathering of senior European Jewish and Muslim leaders in Paris that to combat increasing hate, violence and extremism all must join together to become part of the solution.

“When an attack is launched against the right to practice religion in Europe, we should all stand up against it,” Kantor said.

“An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us. We, as leaders, have the power and the responsibility to create change in our synagogues, in our mosques, in sending the right messages.”

During their two-day gathering, religious leaders from 18 European countries discussed mutual issues of concern, especially the growing hate and extremism in Europe and attacks against religious expression across the European continent.

The meeting was held under the auspices of the European Jewish Congress in cooperation with the Great Mosque of Paris and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

The initiative was welcomed by Muslim leaders, who called for greater cooperation between Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe.

�As Jews and Muslims, we share common values and same adversities and are often targets of anti-Semitism and racism. But we need to take this further and remind our leaders across Europe that we expect their protection of the people they represent as is the right of every citizen in a democratic society.�said Senaid Koblica, President of the Islamic Council of Norway.

The religious leaders also discussed the growing assault on religious practices after calls to ban circumcision and religious slaughter have grown across Europe in recent months.

�Through diversity we have been able to achieve unity. We, Muslims and Jews, stand together and say to our opponents that you will not be able to change our culture, our traditions and our religion.�

Source: European Jewish Press

Jewish, Muslim Leaders Respond to Attacks on Religious Liberties

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor (pictured) said "recent attacks against our religious practices in Europe are an assault on all people of faith and they are indeed an attack on freedom of expression, the very basis for a free, democratic and tolerant European society."

Amid attempts to ban circumcision in Germany and ritual slaughter in the Netherlands, Jewish and Muslim leaders are uniting to fight what they call an ongoing attack on religious freedom in Europe.

The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported that the European Jewish Congress (EJC), the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and the Great Mosque of Paris hosted a gathering of Jewish and Muslim leaders from 18 European countries Sept. 4-5, with the goal of determining ways of responding to religious bans in their continent.

“The recent attacks against our religious practices in Europe are an assault on all people of faith and they are indeed an attack on freedom of expression, the very basis for a free, democratic and tolerant European society,” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said, according to EJP.

Kantor said that while the practices Jews and Muslims have already been targeted, “tomorrow it could be Christians.”

Source: Algemeiner.com

At Gathering of Senior European Jewish & Muslim Leaders, EJC President Calls for a United Stand against Hate

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor told a large gathering of senior European Jewish and Muslim leaders that to combat increasing hate, violence and extremism all must join together to become part of the solution.

“When an attack is launched against the right to practice religion in Europe, we should all stand up against it,” Kantor said. “An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us. We, as leaders, have the power and the responsibility to create change in our synagogues, in our mosques, in sending the right messages.”

The religious leaders from 18 European countries came together for a two-day Gathering in Paris to discuss mutual issues of concern, especially the growing hate and extremism in Europe and attacks against religious expression across the European continent.

The event, The Second Gathering of European Jewish and Muslim Leaders, was held under the auspices of the European Jewish Congress in cooperation with the Great Mosque of Paris and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

The initiative was welcomed by Muslim leaders, who called for greater cooperation between Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe.

�As Jews and Muslims, we share common values and same adversities and are often targets of antisemitism and racism. But we need to take this further and remind our leaders across Europe that we expect their protection of the people they represent as is the right of every citizen in a democratic society.�Said Senaid Koblica, President of the Islamic Council of Norway.

The religious leaders also discussed the growing assault on religious practices after calls to ban circumcision and religious slaughter have grown across Europe in recent months.

�If there is a positive to be taken from the recent assaults on our rights to circumcision and religious slaughter, it is the fact that it is bringing our communities closer together by demonstrating the commonality of our faith and our traditions,� Kantor told the gathering. �Through diversity we have been able to achieve unity. We, Muslims and Jews, stand together and say to our opponents that you will not be able to change our culture, our traditions and our religion.�

Source: Yeshiva World News

Jewish and Muslim Leaders to Gather in Paris to Discuss Attempts to Proscribe Religious Practices in Europe

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0600

80 Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from 18 European countries, will gather this week in Paris to discuss mutual issues of concern, especially the escalating assault on religious practices in Europe.

The "Second Gathering of European Jewish and Muslim Leaders," will be hosted by the European Jewish Congress (EJC) in cooperation with the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the Great Mosque of Paris.

The two-day event on Tuesday and Wednesay will also be an opportunity for lay and religious leaders to discuss various issues such as Muslim-Jewish cooperation, fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry and discuss effective strategies for combating extremism through mutual solidarity.

Recent attempts to proscribe circumcision and religious slaughter are part of a growing assault on religion on the continent, Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, will tell the participants.

"The recent attacks against our religious practices in Europe are an assault on all people of faith and they are indeed an attack on freedom of expression, the very basis for a free, democratic and tolerant European society."

"Yesterday it was Jews, today it is Muslims and tomorrow it could be Christians."

"We, European citizens, Muslims and Jews, stand together and say to our opponents that you will not be able to change our culture, our traditions and our religion. We are of course ready for compromise and dialogue with the governments and leadership of Europe. The Dutch model where the government and the communities sat and discussed until a compromise was reached is a positive model that I hope will be replicated in every country of good will," says Kantor.

Recent attacks against Jews and Muslims in Europe will also be addressed and the role community leaders can play.

"When an attack is launched against a mosque or a synagogue, against Muslim or a Jew, like in Berlin in recent days, it is the responsibility of all of us to stand up and make loud our protest," Kantor will say.

Source: European Jewish Press

Berlin Rabbi Hospitalised in Hate Attack

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Four youths assaulted a rabbi and threatened to kill his six-year-old daughter in the Schöneberg district of Berlin this week.

According to reports, one of the four young assailants blocked the rabbi’s path while the three others stood behind him and his daughter. The man obstructing the rabbi suddenly hit the rabbi repeatedly, injuring his head.

During the assault, the youths, of Arab extraction, abused the rabbi over his Jewish faith and threatened to kill his daughter.

The rabbi, 53, was taken to hospital with head injuries.

President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Dieter Graumann condemned the attack, saying he was “dumbfounded”.

Mr Graumann said the incident represented an “assault on our values, ones of tolerance and liberalism”.

European Jewish Congress President Dr Moshe Kantor said: �Life goes on in Europe after such events as the Toulouse murders, but for the Jewish community life does not return to normal. The murders created a wound in our communal psyche which is widened with every attack and the lack of a clear, concerted and institutional response means that it will not heal.�

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said that he denounced the �antisemitic attack in the harshest terms�.

Source: The Jewish Chronicle

European Jewish Congress Condemns Attack on Jew, Daughter

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0600

A clearly recognizable Jew, wearing a yarmulka, and his 6-year-old daughter, were attacked Tuesday night by four suspected Arab youths, according to a report published Wednesday by the German-language Juedische Allgemeine (Jewish News) weekly.

According to the report, the 53-year-old rabbi was beaten on the head after being asked whether he was a Jew. The attackers shouted anti-Semitic epithets and insults about the rabbi's mother while beating the rabbi. They also also reportedly threatened to kill his small daughter.

The rabbi's injuries were severe enough to require outpatient treatment at a local hospital.

The attack has been classified as a hate crime by Berlin police. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit condemned the attack saying, “Berlin is an international city in which intolerance, xenophobia and anti-Semitism are not tolerated. Police will make every effort to find and arrest the perpetrators.”

European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor condemned the attack.

“After the murders in Toulouse we expected one of two things to happen. On the one hand it could have sent shock waves across Europe that there is a massive problem and it has to be dealt with, leading to a lessoning of these types of attacks,” Kantor said. �The other option was that the reaction would be meager and it would send a message to extremists that life continues as normal.

�Unfortunately, the second option seems to have prevailed. Life goes on in Europe after such events as the Toulouse murders, but for the Jewish community life does not return to normal. The murders created a gaping wound in our communal psyche which is widened with every additional attack and the lack of a clear, concerted and institutional response means that it will not heal. �

The head of the Jewish community in Germany issued a statement condemning the attack as well.

"This heinous attack on Jewish people in the middle of our capital city, appalled and shocked me deeply," said Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. "This attack, however, is not only a malicious attack on the Jews in Germany. It is an attack on all of us, on our shared values of tolerance and liberalism. It may not be trivialized under any circumstances.

"However," he added, "we Jews won't be intimidated by such callous attacks. We will continue vigorously to build our Jewish future in this country." Graumann expressed confidence that Berlin police would soon catch the perpetrators.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Designer John Galliano Loses French Title over Anti-Semitic Tirades

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Fashion designer John Galliano reportedly was stripped of his Legion of Honor medal because of anti-Semitic behavior.

The newspaper Le Point, among other French media, reported that a decree by French President Francois Hollande published last week on France’s official journal said Galliano, 51, may no longer wear the medal - France’s highest honor - which he received in 2009.

Last year Galliano, a British citizen, lost his job as design director at Christian Dior after he was filmed making anti-Semitic statements.

A French court later ruled he had made "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity" in several incidents.

In one incident, Galliano at a Paris bar stated his love for Adolf Hitler and told people he believed were Jewish that their mothers should have been gassed. He blamed his outbursts on addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, told JTA that the decision to strip Galliano of the title was "appropriate and just."

"These types of medals should be more than just about talent in a particular sphere, and should also reflect a person's contribution to society and their personal character," said Kantor, who received the French medal earlier this year. "Galliano showed in his outbursts that his views are divisive and hateful."

The text of the decree was not immediately available.

Source: JTA

German Rabbi Hit with Criminal Charges for Performing a Circumcision

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Jewish leaders are decrying charges against a German rabbi for performing a circumcision, contending his case is reminiscent of "darker times" in that country, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

The criminal case against Rabbi David Goldberg is apparently the first to arise from a German district court's ruling that circumcising an infant for non-medical reasons is a form of assault.

"It has been many decades since a Jew was charged for practicing Judaism openly and is reminiscent of far darker times," European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor reportedly said. "We hope that in Germany, of all places the authorities would remain far more sensitive to this issue."

Israeli politician Danny Danon called the charges part of a "disturbing trend" in Germany.

Source: Business Insider