Meeting with H.E. Denitsa Sacheva, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria

September 18, 2019

Yesterday, on 17 September 2019, a delegation made up from the European Jewish Association (Alex Benjamin, Director of Public Affairs), the Action and Protection Foundation /Hungary/ (Ferenc Olti, Board Member of the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association and Kálmán Szalai, Secretary) and a member of our Advisory Board (Emil Kalo, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, President of the Bulgarian Foundation ORT) has met with Denitsa Sacheva, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, and members of her office.

The main topic of discussion has been the European Curriculum and Textbook Project against Antisemitism, a meeting on which just last week has already taken place in Valletta, Malta. This time, organized in the ancient city of Sofia, we have had an excellent opportunity to touch upon this subject and its various aspects with Mrs. Sacheva and her colleagues.

Not only has interest in possible cooperation been reciprocated – which in itself is already an excellent result – a preliminary agreement has been reached with Madam Deputy Minister on prospectively designing and implementing a pilot project in Bulgaria, based on the ECTPA.

We are deeply grateful to Deputy Minister Sacheva and the Ministry of Education and Science for the chance to talk about this important initiative and eagerly look forward to further cooperation.

Additional Articles

Greetings for the Upcoming Rosh HaShanah by President of the Cyprus, H.E. Mr. Nicos Anastasiades

Meeting with Mr. Abdallah Chatila

It’s not every day you get to meet a bona fide hero. Following our big campaign against the auctioning of Nazi memorabilia, our Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin and our Director of Public Affairs Alex Benjamin travelled to Geneva to meet with Mr Abdallah Chatila.

Mr Chatila decided to buy 600,000Euro worth of this memorabilia when he heard our aggravation at the sale, with the express purpose of taking it out of the marketplace, and entrusting it to the Jewish Community.

We met with Mr Chatila not only to thank him personally and present him with a gift (we planted 18 trees in Israel for him – 18 being the numerical value of Chai the Hebrew word for life), but to explore future areas for co-operation.

Mr Chatila will be joining an EJA trip to Auschwitz in January, along with a 100 parliamentarians, where he will join us in our call for an end to the macabre and disgusting sale in Nazi trinkets, and we will present him with an award for his action.

A humble man, Mr Chatila told us he had no interest in the pieces per-se, but bought them and gave them away to send a message: Hitler and the Nazis are the personification of death, and such items do not belong amongst the population at large.

He said he didn’t want to be remembered as the man who bought the hat, but for the message behind his action. We reassured Mr Chatila that his action is what will be remembered, that it serves as a selfless example to humanity, and that we will work together to ensure that no other like-minded person is forced to do the same – because governments will simply ban such sales.

We thank Mr Chatila again and look forward to fruitful co-operation in making this campaign a reality in the months ahead.

https://www.facebook.com/ejassociation/videos/1124415267764899/
 

EJA Press release on European Court of Justice ruling on Kosher slaughter

EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION LAMENTS EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE RULING ON KOSHER SLAUGHTER IN BELGIUM “WHAT A TERRIBLE MESSAGE TO SEND TO EUROPEAN JEWRY – YOU AND YOUR PRACTICE ARE NOT WELCOME HERE” SAYS ITS CHIEF.
“Bogus animal welfare claims are being used to penalise a practice that puts care and respect for animals at its very core”,
“This ruling gives the green light for other countries to follow suit, and if they do, there will be no Kosher meat available in Europe”, says Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association.
(Brussels 17 December 2020) The European court of Justice today delivered a potentially devastating ruling on an issue that has plagued European Jewry for years, the right to slaughter animals in the Kosher tradition, a millennia old practice that puts animal welfare and minimizing animal suffering at its very core.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the EJA today said his organisaton will explore every avenue and recourse available to protect the rights of Jews everywhere in Europe,
“This is a sad day for European Jewry. For decades now, as animal rights have come into vogue, Kosher slaughter has come under relentless attack, and subject to repeated attempts to ban it. The entire basis of the attacks are built on the entirely bogus premise that Kosher slaughter is more cruel than regular slaughtering, despite there being not a shred of evidence backing this up, and worse completely ignoring the fact that Kosher slaughter puts the welfare of the animal and minimising its suffering as of paramount importance. This is not a glib staement, but a commandment that all Jews must adhere to.
“What today’s ruling does is put animal welfare above the fundamental right of Freedom of Religion. Simply put, Beast takes preference over man.
Potentially devasting too, it gives other European countries like Belgium – who similarly regard this fundamental Charter freedom as ‘negotiable – the green light to follow suit. If every european country does it means only one thing: there will be no Kosher meat available in Europe anymore.
“What a terrible message to send to European Jewry, that you and your practices are not welcome here. This is a basic denial of our rights as European citizens. We cannot let it stand and will pursue every recourse and avenue to ensure that it doesnt.”
The European Court of Justice has ruled on a Belgian case, involving Flanders and Wallonia laws, that require pre-stunning of animals before slaughter. In short, the Court says that individual Member State moves to ban kosher slaughter by making stunning a pre-requisite, do not in themselves violate the Freedom of Religion rights contained within the EU charter of Fundamental Rights.
The ruling runs contrary to an opinion given in early September 2020 by the European Court Advocate General who suggested the oppositea.

Hundreds protest German hotel after Jewish celebrity denied room over Star of David pendent

(JTA) — Several hundred people protested in front of a hotel in Germany after a Jewish musician said he had been refused service for wearing a Star of David pendant.
Gil Ofarim, a 39-year-old singer and dual citizen of Israel and Germany, posted a video to social media Tuesday night in which he accused the Westin Leipzig hotel of denying him service because he was wearing a Star of David necklace. The video, which he titled “Antisemitism in Germany 2021” in all capital letters, has gone viral, with antisemitism watchdogs and others sharing it widely.
After waiting in line to check in, Ofarim asked why others who arrived after him were admitted before him. According to Ofarim, another customer replied telling him to “take off the star.” At least one employee then told Ofarim he needed to remove the pendant to get service, the singer said.
Read More :
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/hundreds-protest-german-hotel-after-jewish-celebrity-denied-room-over-star-of-david-pendent-681275
Additional Communities
United Kingdom
Ukraine
Turkey
Schweiz
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Slovenia
Slovakia
Serbia
Russia