European Jewish Association to petition Holocaust bill at Polish court

נשיאת הפרלמנט האירופי, רוברטה מטסולה, בביקורת חריפה נגד רוסיה באשר למלחמה אותה היא מבצעת באוקראינה. מטסולה, פוליטיקאית ממלטה, השתתפה אתמול (שני) באירוע אזכרה במחנה ההשמדה אושוויץ – בירקנאו שנערך במסגרת כנס המנהיגים האירופאים השנתי למאבק באנטישמיות שמקיים איגוד הארגונים היהודים באירופה (EJA). הכנס נערך בסמיכות ליום השנה ה-84 לפוגרום ליל הבדולח, שהיווה את המתקפה האלימה רחבת ההיקף הראשונה של המשטר הנאצי נגד האוכלוסיה היהודית ברחבי הרייך הגרמני.

בכנס השתתפו גם ראש ממשלת מונטנגרו, הנציב האירופי לענייני הרחבת האיחוד, ראשי הפרלמנט מצרפת ומצ׳כיה ונציגים נוספים מכ-20 מדינות.

בתשובה לשאלת ״ישראל היום״ על היוזמות הממסדיות ברחבי האיחוד האירופי לאסור מסורות יהודיות כשחיטה כשרה ומילה, אמרה מטסולה: ״אנחנו רואים דוגמאות שונות לאנטישמיות במדינות-חברות שונות של האיחוד האירופי. אנחנו רואים גם סובלנות גדלה לכך. זו לא רק אחריותנו הפוליטית אלא גם משפטית לפעול באמצעות המוסדות שלנו להגן על כל אזרח שחי באיחוד״.

הנציב להרחבת האיחוד האירופי, אוליבר ווארהליי, הבהיר מצדו שהאיחוד האירופי לא יכול להסתפק רק בגיבוש אסטרטגיות למאבק באנטישמיות, אלא לעבור למעשים. ״פעולה משמעה לא רק מאבק באנטישמיות אלא החזרת החיים היהודיים לאירופה״, הדגיש ווארהליי, ״זה מה שחסר לנו. באופן מצער אנטישמיות לא רק נוכחת באירופה אלא גם צומחת. אנחנו רואים סוגים אלימים שלה. אחריותנו בכל המדינות האירופיות ובכל דרג שלטון היא לקום, להתנגד לכך ולהילחם בכך. הנציבות הבהירה שלא ייתכן שיהיה ספק כלשהו לגבי הצורך במאבק באנטישמיות או בעצידה לצד הקהילה היהודית. הקהילה היהודית היא העוצמה שלנו. על כולנו לתמוך בה״.

הרב מנחם מרגולין, יו״ר איגוד הארגונים היהודיים באירופה, סיפר למשתתפי הכנס ששני ילדיו בני העשרה חוו רק לפני שבוע אנטישמיות, לא הרחק ממטה האיחוד האירופי בבריסל, כשנוסעת באוטובוס קיללה אותם ״יהודים מלוכלכים״. ״אנחנו עדים לעלייה באנטישמיות בכל רחבי אירופה״, התריע מרגולין, “ליהודים יש הרבה מה לתרום לחברה האירופית, ואני מקווה שכולם ישלבו כוחות כדי להבטיח שליהדות באירופה יהיה עתיד טוב יותר. עתיד טוב יותר ליהודים, יהיה עתיד טוב יותר לאירופה״.

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
 
It was another week of sorting through my stuffed inbox. A nice surprising was the initiative of an unknown person who only has a Jewish father. He wants to set up a website entitled: “ask the rabbi”.
 
I thought it was nice that someone who is therefore according to Halachah non-Jewish approached me to do this. So, I immediately made contact and agreed to participate.
 
The intention is that people ask their question online and that the administrator, him in this case, then forwards the questions to one of the participating rabbis. It seems sensible to me that some sort of pre-selection takes place, but although he thought the questions would be limited to questions about knowledge, I expect many more requests for help.
 
A request for help is very difficult to answer in writing. And so my proposal is that the rabbi call the questioner from an unnamed number. Experience has taught me that most of the questions that come to me are dressed up in a simple factual question, but that behind that simple question lies a much deeper question or problem. I cannot perceive this problem if the question is asked in writing.
 
And so the webmaster gets to work and looks at how we can separate the wheat from the chaff, but at the same time not throw the baby away with the bath water. I’m curious! So although I got up too late, because I went to bed much too late, my working day became too short. Especially because I had to come to Veldhoven to take part in an Israeli broadcast debating anti-Semitism and the question of how politics deals with Israel. And that was, despite first glance, fun.
 
I had brought to my friend Louk de Liever a bottle of Israeli wine specially from Judea and Samaria, which has been bombarded by the anti-Jewish lobby into a so-called ‘occupied area’ and these products must be provided with a label on which the origin can be recognised. So, product of Israel is of course out of the question, but also coming from Judea and Samaria is not accepted. It should read product from “occupied territory”. And while I had just returned from the city centre of Amersfoort, where Louk lives, after my walk, I see a message that in Dubai products from the so-called “occupied territories” may be sold without a label because they support the Palestinian economy. I am curious if the United Nations will now pass a resolution against the United Arab Emirates and I am even more curious how our Ministry of Foreign Affairs will respond.
 
Are they now sending a number of employees to fine the Chamber of Commerce in Dubai, as they did a few months ago to Nijkerk? Making sure that animal suffering in the slaughterhouses was limited, there was not enough staff available for that, but those few bottles of delicious Israeli wine from the “occupied territories” apparently had enough time and staff and that was really much more important than unnecessary animal suffering…But even if that reporting isn’t correct yet, it doesn’t matter. Because in politics, today’s truth can be tomorrow’s lie, or vice versa!
At 6:00 PM left for Veldhoven, near Eindhoven, for the Israel evening. It started at 8:00 PM and lasted until 9:15 PM. What a great program, what energy the SGP has put into this.
 
What pro-Israel warmth. And how grateful I am that I was able to participate in this. The background was a large photo of Jerusalem with the burning menorah in front of it. Perfect music, live interview with someone from Israel and someone else from Iraq. It was amazing.
 
But of course I had to think about what to say. It takes energy, but thank G-d I have that. At 11:15 PM I was home, floored. Wrote the diary and had another conversation with a political person to try to get a visa for a father who lives in Israel, is divorced and wants to visit his two small children, who live with his ex in the Netherlands. Problem: Visa is not granted due to corona. The political insider will see what he can do. And now, my faithful diary readers , if you don’t know what to do with your time for an hour and fifteen minutes, click on this link: https://youtu.be/NYJQaIjQIt8. Enjoy our friends of Israel, because we really have them!
 

Day two of our bootcamp started with two special guests: Berlin’s combatting anti-semitism representative Mr Sigmount Konigsborg, and ACOM’s Mr Angel Mas who took our participants on an intensive session into modern manifestations of anti-semitism, the challenges of social media and how to fight back on campus and in public discourse. Both are heroes of ours and it was great to have them share their experience and tips.
We had a brief tour of Madrid before getting straight back into it with Attorney at the Paris Bar and leading French Jewish and Israel advocate Pascal Markowicz who gave us his take and counter arguments to the ICC’s announcement to investigate Israel, then we dove straight into an EJA team seminar on two threats to Jewish life in Europe: Shechitah and Brit Milah. Day 2 concluded with a great dinner where special guests from the Israeli embassy and Spanish MP and friend of the EJA José Ignacio Echániz. Then, well, we let our hair down a bit…
Day 3 coincided with Yom Hazikaron, and it was fitting on a day that Israel mourns its dead in defence of the country that we spoke about the positive impact that Israel has played in embedding normalisation in the hearts and minds of the Emiratis. Two masterminds of the the social media strategy Strategic Mr Yonatan Gonen who heads up the Arab language social media section at the MFA and Mr Ido Daniel who directs public diplomacy and social media at the Ministry of Strategic Affairs shared their remarkable and inspiring works as well providing tips and insights on how to manage social media relations.
We then went straight into a panel of leading Spanish Journalists for an exchange of views on Israel and how the media covers the region, before concluding with former ACOM President and former President of the Madrid community Mr David Hatchwell, who shared his incredible and inspiring story of how he got engaged in advocacy and the challenges and opportunities in advocacy work going forward. Finally, as we drew our bootcamp to a close, we talked about our Jewish Diplomatic Corps, which is the next step for many of our bootcampers….intense, fun, enlightening and constructive. The EJA, our partners the
ECJS (European Center for Jewish Students) and Concert – Together for Israel are building the next generation of Jewish leaders. Leaders with the right skills and tenacity to lead from the front. We are proud of them.