Kantor: 70 years after kristallnacht life of the jews still threatened by intolerance

European Jewish Press
10.11.2008

70 years after ‘Kristallnacht,’ the anti-Jewish pogroms organized by the Nazis as a prelude to the Holocaust, the life of the Jews is still threatened by intolerance and hatred, Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) said.

Speaking on Sunday in Brussels at a memorial service organized by the EJC at the city’s Great Synagogue to mark the anniversary, Kantor stressed that the leader of Iran, a country which is trying to have the nuclear weapon with the help of European companies, is threatening to wipe Israel off the map and is making anti-Semitic statements before the United Nations general assembly.”

“Nobody left the UN hall, nobody protested Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s comments,” Kantor deplored.

The service at the synagogue was attended by the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, and Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue in New York, both Holocaust survivors, as well as diplomats and several hundreds members of the Belgian Jewish community.

“By burning synagogues, the Nazis understood that they were touching the heart of the Jewish life,” Rabbi Lau said in his address, calling on the Jews “to learn from the past." 

Chazan (Cantor) Benjamin Muller recited the mourners' prayers El Molei Rachamim and Kaddish.

The ceremony is part of events held in Brussels, seat of the main European Union institutions, to commemorate ‘Kristallnacht’ (or Night of Broken Glass) but also to promote tolerance and reconciliation across the continent.

On Monday, the European Jewish Congress hosts a special event promoting tolerance in the European Parliament.

 The event will be held under the auspices of the president of the EU assembly, Hans-Gert Poettering. Speakers will include European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who chairs the recently launched European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), Lluis Maria de Puig, Spanish President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the 47-nation Council of Europe.

 “We are initating a very strong programme to unite Europe, Jews and non-Jews, around tolerance and reconciliation in order to fight radicalism, extremism and anti-Semitism,” Moshe Kantor said.