83 years after Kristallnacht, Jewish leader warns: Europe can become ‘Judenfrei’ in 10 years

November 15, 2021

“There are more Jews in Europe who think that there will be no more Jewish community here in a decade than those who think that there is still hope,” declared Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association, writes Yossi Lempkowicz.
“I am not saying that in ten years you will not be able to see Jewish people in Europe but I am very worried about the possibility to have Jewish presence in ten years from now,” he added as he addressed 160 ministers, parliamentarians and diplomats from across Europe who gathered for two days in Krakow, Poland, to discuss ways to increase Holocaust education and remembrance, fight against antisemitism and develop tools to combat hate speech and incitement in the age of social networks.
The gathering included also a tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where a candle lighting ceremony and wreath laying were held in the presence of Rabbi Meir Lau, former chief Rabbi of Israel and President of the Council of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Among the speakers at the conference were Moroccan Minister of Culture and Youth Mohamed

Mehdi Bensaid, Roberta Metsola, European Parliament Vice-President, Hungarian Minister of Science and Education Zoltan Maruzsa, Minister of Education of Rhineland-Palatinate Stefanie Hubig, British Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi, as well as the Speakers of the Parliaments of Slovenia and Montenegro.
The conference took place on the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night of Broken Glass, when on 9 November 1938 the Nazis started the anti-Jewish pogroms by  killing Jews, burning 1400 synagogues and destroying shops owned by Jews across Germany and Austria.
“Europe is fighting anti-Semitism, but it is not winning yet. If this upward trend continues, more and more Jews will seek sanctuary in Israel rather than stay in a continent that cannot learn the lessons and cataclysmic mistakes of its past. We are not yet in the state of Judenfrei but, unfortunately we are approaching it,’’  Rabbi Margolin emphasized.
He noted that Jews who seek to eat according to the customs of their religion cannot do so in certain countries because of laws banning kosher slaughter. And in some cities on the continent Jews cannot walk safely in their traditional clothes.
“Education, he said, is the most effective vaccine in combatting the world’s oldest and most virulent virus.”
Addressing the symposium in a video from Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett said: “In the Middle Ages Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries Jews were reviled because of their race, and today Jews are attacked because of their Nation State, Israel.”
“It is worrying that there needs to be a conference about Anti-Semitism in Auschwitz so soon after the Holocaust,” the Israeli premier said, adding that “so long as Israel remains strong, Jewish people around the world will be strong.”
British Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi stated that: “The Holocaust was a failure for humanity and justice. The worst event in history. Nothing can erase the pain. I can feel the pain because my whole family has run away from Saddam Hussein’s rule. As Kurds, we had to escape. We fled when I was 7 years old from Iraq to the UK.”

The symposium in Krakow was followed by a visit of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where a candle light ceremony and wreath laying took place.

He added: “I understand the important role of UK teachers in Holocaust education. Learning about history is something we sanctify in the UK. Due to the corona, virtual visits to Auschwitz increased. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and racism. Anti-hate education is our top priority in the UK. I urge universities to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” he said in a reference to antisemitism  on campuses.
German Minister of Education of the Rhineland-Palatinate State, Stefanie Hubig  said: “I work hard to preserve the memory of the Holocaust in schools. We work to bring teachers to visit memorial sites and promote Jewish education in schools. This is all important because, unfortunately, there are still reasons why we must continue to remember.”
In a message from Rabat, Moroccan Minister of Culture and Youth, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, stressed that this conference is taking place at a time when more and more radical ideologies promoting anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia are flourishing. “As long as the danger of radicalism hovers over the world, we all have a duty to remind and teach our younger generation in Morocco and around the world about the dark chapter of the Holocaust in human history.”
Kálmán Szalai, secretary of the European Action and Protection League (APL) identified education as an important means of reducing anti-Semitic prejudice and emphasized that “the knowledge passed on to new generations can fundamentally influence the choice of values in adulthood”.
A recent survey by the APL showed the persistence of anti-Jewish prejudices in the population of several countries in Europe.

83 years after Kristallnacht, Jewish leader warns: Europe can become ‘Judenfrei’ in 10 years

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EIPA Special Conference: October 7th Massacre, One Year On: The War in Gaza and Escalation with Hezbollah - Iran’s Right Hand. What Comes Next?

(Brussels 1 October 2024) As the anniversary of the October 7th massacre approaches, and amid the ongoing war in Gaza, the escalation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the broader conflict in the Middle East is being imported to the streets of Europe’s main cities and endangering the social fabric and traditional liberal values ​​of the continent.

Experts from Iran, the Gulf States, Israel and Europe warn that antisemitic threats and attacks across Europe are far too organized to be spontaneous and European governments should focus on the networks behind them. Countries need to understand the difference between a strategic and tactical approach to violence.

The experts spoke at a special conference to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2024, which was held yesterday by Europe Israel Press Association and American Middle East Press Association – two independent NGOs About who brought around 70 journalists and editors from top flight European publications to Brussels to ask the pertinent question: What comes next?

The panel on growing imported radicalism in Europe was opened by the Senior Director of Berlin’s Counter Extremism Project, Dr Hans Jakob Schindler who warned: “Since October 7th, we’ve seen extreme antisemitism operationalised, particularly in academia, where post-colonial theory is being used to justify it. The growing scale of online platforms makes it impossible to fully moderate the content fueling this radicalization.”

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association and Founder of EIPA AND AMEPA emphasized: “The rise of extremism in Europe poses a serious threat to the very foundations of our Western values — democracy, tolerance, and human rights. The tragic events of October 7th remind us that we cannot afford complacency in the face of hatred and violence. It is imperative that we invest in education to instill these values in the next generation and strengthen law enforcement to protect all communities. We must unite against this scourge to ensure a safer and more just society for all. The EJA will lead a delegation of Ministers of Education and deans of major Universities to Auschwitz next month to facilitate a much needed re-focus on these areas”.

Director of IRGC Research at United Against a Nuclear Iran, Kasra Aarabi warned about Iranian infiltration and activities on European soil: “There are Islamist schools and centres in cities like London and Paris that are nurturing homegrown terrorists. European officials are hesitant to proscribe the IRGC for fear of being labelled Islamophobic, which can end a civil servant’s career. There is an urgent need to counter online extremist content, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Meanwhile, European policymakers are reluctant to challenge countries like Qatar, where money often shields them from scrutiny. Iran’s regime excels in asymmetric warfare, using chaos to destabilize both the Middle East and Europe by targeting diaspora communities.”

Speaking on the eve of Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon Former national security adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel and a retired Israeli Major General Yaakov Amidror, said: “The severe attack on October 7th was a result of Israel’s focus on Lebanon, and even today I believe it was the right decision to prioritize the Iranian threat from Hezbollah, which posed a far greater danger than Hamas. Without the events of October 7th, I’m not sure whether any Prime Minister in Israel would have been able to declare a pre-emptive war—due to pressures from Europe, the U.S., and internal factors within Israel. However, it is now clear that in the future, Israel cannot allow Iran’s proxies to grow unchecked into monstrous threats along its borders. Israel can no longer depend on other countries for ammunition and spare parts. While we may not be able to produce our own planes and submarines, we must invest in self-production capabilities and develop tools that will enable us to strike in Iran, Yemen, or any other location where a significant existential threat emerges. Israel will have to significantly expand the size of its army and increase defense spending, while maintaining a balance with its other economic challenges.”

On a deep dive into the situation in Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank and Yemen, Gaith Al-Omari, a Palestinian Expert and Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute set the scene: “We must remember the human cost of these conflicts—those murdered on October 7th, the hostages, their families, and the Palestinians killed in the war. Our politics must be grounded in a human perspective. Hezbollah is not just a proxy; it is the launchpad for Iranian policies. Hamas, though now destroyed as a military organisation, remains a significant disruptive force, and it will take years to change that. At the end of the day, a two-state solution must remain the future aspiration, but it depends on Israeli and Palestinian politics and effective governance. After October 7th, mistrust between Israelis and Palestinians runs deeper than ever, reminding us all that the Palestinian issue is far from over.”

He was followed by Ahmed Alkhuzai, the Director of US Affairs at the Gulf Israel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, who said in his remarks: “The Iranian proxies are the greatest plague in the Middle East, and while Arab countries have been unable to eradicate them, Israel is now doing so on behalf of the region and the world. Iran avoids direct conflict with Israel, preferring to wage war through its proxies—it’s cheaper for them, both financially and emotionally. As for the future, Israel is postponing discussions on the two-state solution until it finishes confronting these proxies.”

On EU-Israel relations on the post October 7th Landscape, His Excellency Amb. Haim Regev, Israel’s Head of Mission to the EU and NATO discussed what has been a difficult year. He said: “The media often forgets how this war began, which is why we must continue to highlight the events of October 7th. Israel left Gaza in 2005 with the hope that it would thrive, but Hamas chose terror over progress. The main issue preventing an end to the war is the hostages. This war will not conclude until they are safely home. Israel is confronting multiple threats on all fronts, and no European country would tolerate the situation we face. Enough is enough—our war is not against Lebanon or its people, but against Hezbollah.”

He was joined by former Swedish European Parliamentarian David Lega, now a senior adviser of the EJA in Scandinavia, who gave his experience of EU-Israel challenges and opportunities: “The relationship between the EU and Israel has always been complex. While the international community acknowledges Israel’s right to defend itself, it faces heavy criticism the moment it acts on that right. European Jews are increasingly concerned about their future on the continent. High Representative Josep Borrell has failed to represent the EU’s views, opting instead to impose his personal perspective. However, with the new composition of the European Parliament, there is a more unified and pro-Israel stance. Israel has a moral imperative to defend its citizens as the homeland of the Jewish people, and any negotiation must prioritize the safe return of the hostages. A strong EU-Israel relationship benefits the world, and we must protect Israel, the only democracy in this volatile region.”

The panel on the Russia-Iran Axis and its threats to the EU, US and Israel saw Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Behnam Ben Taleblu open with incisive remarks: “Hezbollah is the most successful export of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the ‘crown jewel.’ While Israel’s conventional success against Iran may lead to long-term nuclear challenges, Iran has been supplying Russia with drones and missiles, receiving cash, gold, and even nuclear assistance in return. Russia provides Iran with both status and security. As diplomacy with Iran faces an expiration in 2025, the only true solution lies in a fundamentally different regime in Tehran.” He was immediately followed by Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) Beni Sabti, who gave some detailed insight into the Iranian strategy post October 7: “80% of Iranians didn’t vote in the last elections, highlighting the regime’s illegitimacy. While Tehran faces daily electricity outages and collapsing infrastructure, the regime chooses to invest in Hamas and Hezbollah, rather than its own people. Iran’s leadership is driven by hubris, believing it is on a messianic path to destroy Israel. The collaboration between Iran and Russia poses a significant threat not just to the Middle East but also to Europe, as Iranian agents spread instability and radical propaganda across the continent. Israel will not allow Iran to go nuclear—it’s a matter of survival.”

The Conference finished with a live broadcast from the United States with John Spencer, West Point Academy’ urban warfare expert, who gave his perspective of the combat challenges currently being faced by Israel in areas of high population density where human shields are used. He said: “Israel faces an unprecedented military challenge with Hezbollah, a terrorist army of over 200,000 soldiers, disguising military sites as civilian ones in southern Lebanon. Despite the complexities, Israel remains committed to minimizing civilian casualties, even under the harshest conditions. As Israel works to secure its northern border, it must create a new security paradigm to address this evolving threat.”

The invited journalists then heard from a survivor of the Kibbutz Nir Oz massacre, Irit Lahav, who gave harrowing testimony and her hopes for the future: “One-third of the people from my kibbutz were murdered or abducted. We stayed in the safe room for twelve hours, listening to the constant sound of gunfire and terrorists trying to break in. When we were rescued, our house was destroyed, but we were just happy to be alive. before October 7th I helped take Palestinians from Gaza once a week for medical treatments in Israel and I will continue to do so even after the horrors we suffered –  but unfortunately, on October 7th I saw with my own eyes that it is not only the Hamas activists who are filled with hatred and strive to destroy Israel. The entire population of Gaza, men and women, young and old, share the ambition to kill all the citizens of Israel.

I thought people in Gaza wanted peace like us, but now I understand that they are teaching their children to take pride in killing. My heart breaks because the world and our own government are not doing enough to free the hostages.”

Ambassadors are Like Rabbis: Reflections from Our Advisory Board Member Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs

Every Day during the Corona crisis our Advisory Board Member Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs (NL) writes a diary, on request of the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam,  which is published on the website of the NIW, the only Jewish Dutch Magazine. Rabbi Jacobs is the head of Inter Governmental Relationships at the Rabbinical Centre of Europe. We will be regularly publishing a selection of his informative, sometimes light hearted, but always wise pieces.
For our Dutch readers you can follow the diary every day at NIW home page: https://niw.nl and then: scroll down.
Ambassadors are like Rabbis…
Today was all about abroad. The Ambassador of Hungary had invited me to lunch at his embassy. We have known each other for a few years, meet from time to time and so again today. Reason for the visit? No. Just catching up again about kosher slaughter, which was threatening to become a problem in Poland and the relationship between Hungary and Israel.
Because it would not be exactly easy to arrange a kosher meal at the Hungarian embassy, ​we (my wife and I) invited him to lunch with us.
So,the ambassador came to Amersfoort and we not to The Hague. Not wanting to come empty-handed, he brought a huge bouquet of flowers and a bottle of kosher wine.
How did he get that wine? The ambassador called his friend Naor (the ambassador of Israel) and he arranged for a bottle of kosher Israeli wine from the IPC – the Israel Products Center – in Nijkerk to be delivered to the Hungarian embassy that morning. And because the Ambassador of Hungary did not know about the existence of the IPC, which is ten minutes from my house, I took him there after lunch. Of course I made sure that in addition to the tour and explanation about the objective of IPC and Christians for Israel, he also received a pack of cookies. Because: tomorrow the ambassador of Israel will visit the Hungarian ambassador and then it seemed nice that I then pay back the bottle of wine via a roll of kosher Israeli biscuits.
Apart from that, I gave the ambassador a mask with “I love Israel” on it, so that the Hungarian ambassador can wear it when the Israeli ambassador comes to make his appearance.
Networking is something like that. Usually it does not deliver on the spot, but is important nonetheless. Ambassadors do no different, and are a bit like rabbis, at least my kind of rabbis.
Because I believe that the rabbi is of course primarily there for the Jewish community in its full breadth. But for that Jewish community, contact with outside that community is also of vital importance, because we are part of the wider society: Noah had to leave the Ark by order of Gd!
Apart from the importance for the Jewish community, we also have a duty, in my opinion, to contribute to the well-being of the surrounding society. Yesterday I had a visit from another kind of ambassador, namely Dr. Pieter de Boer, member of the deputy Church and Israel of the CGK-Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken- and spokesperson of the Interkerkelijke Werkgroep. That Working Group had drawn up a statement of guilt on the attitude of the churches during and shortly after the war. Today, that statement of guilt was officially released.
Although for me such a debt declaration is not really necessary, I was especially touched by the comment about what went wrong after the war. My grandfather and grandmother’s nephews and nieces were not allowed to be raised with my grandfather and grandmother, but were to remain in the Christian homes where they had been in hiding. Of course, those parents had bonded with the kids, saved their lives, but … they really hadn’t given up their murdered parents with the intention of being raised as Christians.
And whilst with the ambassador: a phone call from Ukraine. One of the rabbis was in a conflict with Christians for Israel supporting him with an adoption project. People in the Netherlands adopt a poverty-stricken Jewish family in Ukraine for € 25 per month. In Kirovograd, communication between the Dutch donors and the local rabbi did not go well. And so I get a call from the rabbi and start mediating or solving, as a kind of ambassador of whom I really don’t know, but I am somewhere in between.
After the necessary phone calls, I hope that I have been able to straighten everything out again and that it also runs smoothly in Kirovograd. What is difficult here is that the local rabbi speaks fluent Russian, but no Yiddish, poor English and not optimal Hebrew, and certainly no Dutch! But I believe I’ve been able to tie things together again. In the meantime, I am waiting for the results of an archival investigation to confirm someone’s Jewishness. I feel that it can be checked that way, but not everyone shares my opinion that (almost) everything should be tackled immediately. In principle, I always answer e-mail immediately.
As a result, I sometimes spend late at night behind that stupid computer that has been controlling my whole life!
But Good news! At least in my opinion. Because, of course, it is really not the case that a hundred listeners are more important than ten at a lecture, and the same goes for the number of readers of my diaries, still, I have to admit my weakness in this, I like that my diaries are getting wide read. And so: Good news for me! Coincidentally (although I really believe that coincidence does not exist) the EJA –European Jewish Association- saw one of my diaries, translated it with Google and asked permission to post this diary a few times a week on their website and their Facebook. And thus more readers. My diary is going European!

הולנד לאוניברסיטאות: "דווחו על כל קשר בין עובדי אוניברסיטאות לישראל ולארגונים יהודיים".

עמית ולדמן | צ׳אט הכתבים
הולנד לאוניברסיטאות: “דווחו על כל קשר בין עובדי אוניברסיטאות לישראל ולארגונים יהודיים”. הרב הראשי של הולנד, בנימין יעקבס, העומד גם בראש הוועדה למאבק באנטישמיות של איגוד הארגונים היהודים באירופה : “מדובר בדרישה המדיפה ריח רע ביותר של אנטישמיות ומזכירה את הדרישה מראשי ערים בהולנד למסור מידע על יהודים לכובשים הגרמנים בזמן השואה”
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“An anti-Semite will never love Israel”

Anti-Semitism is the radicalisation of racism

The European Jewish Association (EJA) kicked off a new annual conference on Monday, this time in Porto, Portugal, as part of the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence and the centenary of the Portuguese city’s Jewish community. Security, the fight against anti-Semitism and the dissemination of Jewish life gained momentum in the face of a worrying rise in hate speech, prejudice and misinformation.
In the face of rising anti-Semitism and hate speech, leaders of Europe’s Jewish communities are preparing to take the discussion to the European Parliament in Brussels.
While the civilian population in Israel was under attack and acts of terrorist violence were increasing on national territory, in Barcelona the Maimonides synagogue was vandalised with a macabre inscription: Free Palestine from the river to the sea. The rising tide of violence against Jews is even worse in northern countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Alarmed also by the words of the representative of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, the Jewish community is preparing to fight on all fronts against anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, which are two sides of the same coin, as Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs has bluntly summed up: “never will an anti-Semite love Israel”. 

The importance of the definition of anti-Semitism
One of the most worrying points has been the increase in aggressive content against Israel and the Jewish community on social media, something that is growing exponentially amidst the spread of misinformation and stereotypes. On this point, representatives of the Jewish university community in France and the Fighting Online Antisemitism (OFA) agree.
It is not anachronistic to speak of anti-Semitism, quite the contrary. As the most radical expression of racism, European governments must broaden their perspective on the premise that we do not live in a world surrounded by islands, but in a world where the problems of the Middle East and the enemies Israel fights against will also impact, sooner rather than later, on European countries. Under anti-Zionism a further radicalisation of racism is achieved and also includes non-Jews who defend Israel.

Pretending to inform with disinformation and hoaxes

Technological evolution has made it possible to broaden voices and sources, but it has also taken away the rigour and reliability of information sources, which are often self-interested cuttings of a reality. In this sense, social networks have become a hotbed of conspiracy theories represented in multimedia content, such as images or videos, which point to the Jews as responsible for all evils. If social media had existed in 1929 during the Hebron pogrom, it would probably have immortalised many comments that would be little different from the comments made by an anti-Semite in the year 2023. There might be different words or spellings, but the content would be the same.

Anti-Semitism on the rise and Jewish communities prepare to take the discussion to the European Parliament
During the pandemic of 2020, conspiracy theories also turned to pointing the finger at Jews as having been responsible for the spread of the virus. At the same time, many European media picked up the false information that Israel was preventing the vaccination of Palestinians. Again, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism were shown as equals.
It is also the networks where Palestinian groups, via Telegram, spread videos where they teach how to prepare homemade explosives as if it were a cooking show. We cannot leave aside the thousands of accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that spread false content, stirring up prejudice or calling for the exclusion of Jewish communities.
Personally, I am grateful for the EJA’s invitation to these days in Porto, a city that is home to a thriving Jewish community that is preparing in a forceful way. However, there is a wake-up call also for non-Jews who believe not only in Israel’s right to exist, something so obvious and yet so little understood, but also for those of us who know the danger of the enemies who seek to destroy Israel.
I doubt that many of those who choose to be anti-Semites out of ignorance rather than vocation imagine what would be involved if Europe became the backyard of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Jihad that threatens the entire world.
Additional Communities
United Kingdom
Ukraine
Turkey
Schweiz
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Slovenia
Slovakia
Serbia
Russia