EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION RESPONSE TO THE VANDALISM IN THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN SLOVAKIA

Over the weekend, we were all shocked by the brutal antisemitic attack on a Jewish man in the French city of Yerres. While walking home from the mikveh, Mr. Cohen was violently assaulted by an individual who called him a “dirty Jew” and proceeded to physically beat him without stopping. The attack caused serious injuries, including trauma to his eye that required hospitalization. This latest assault comes amid a disturbing wave of antisemitic incidents taking place almost daily across France. EJA Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, has sent an urgent letter to Minister Bruno Retailleau, and Prefect Fabienne Balussou, calling for immediate reinforcement of security around synagogues and Jewish community centers , especially ahead of Yom Kippur.

EJA is honored to take part in an importat project – REM ΗERITAGE – Holocaust Education Remembrance through Intergenerational Exchange.

REM HERITAGE: Holocaust Education Remembrance through Intergenerational Exchange is a European project implemented from April 2025 to March 2027. It brings together partners from five countries to strengthen Holocaust remembrance and the collective memory of other mass atrocities.

The project promotes an innovative intergenerational educational approach, combining shared learning experiences, awareness-raising, and communication activities to maximise visibility and long-term impact across Europe.

Objectives:

The overall objective of the project is to foster critical awareness among young people and students about the Holocaust, while promoting democratic values, tolerance, and respect for fundamental rights.

Through the active engagement of multiple generations, the project aims to preserve and transmit the memories and lessons of Holocaust survivors to younger generations, ensuring that such atrocities are never forgotten.

Methodology:

REM HERITAGE is implemented through a series of coordinated activities across participating countries. These include workshops, training sessions, and interactive educational events designed to bridge generational gaps and deepen understanding.

The project employs innovative pedagogical methods, digital tools, and creative approaches to ensure that learning is both meaningful and accessible. In parallel, online awareness-raising and capacity-building initiatives, including transnational components, support a broader European dialogue on Holocaust education and remembrance.

A central digital platform will host project materials, including media content, workshop results, and digital stories produced by partners.

Project Partners

1. CARDET – Center for the Advancement of Research & Development in Educational Technology (Cyprus, coordinator)
2. European Jewish Association ASBL (Belgium)
3. KMOP – Social Action and Innovation Center (Greece)
4. Deutsche Schule Athen (Greece)
5. University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz (Poland)

The project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. PROJECT NUMBER: 101196704

First Rabbi arrested since the Nazis for performing circumcision – in Ireland.

“You cannot imprison the Jewish faith” say European Jewish Association, calling for Rabbi’s immediate release.

The Chairman of the ‏European Jewish Association (EJA), Rabbi Menachem Margolin, is demanding the immediate release of a British rabbi who was arrested in Ireland for performing circumcision.

Rabbi Margolin is calling on the President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, Prime Minister Simon Harris and the Speaker of the Irish Parliament to intervene for the immediate release of the certified Mohel who was arrested yesterday in Dublin, Ireland, without bail, for performing circumcision.

The certified Mohel, Rabbi Yonathan Avraham, 47 years old, father of 10 children, who works legally in England, arrived in neighboring Ireland, was arrested in a raid by the Dublin police on the house where the religious ceremony was performed. He has decades of experience, has performed circumcision all over Europe and is recognised as leading expert and practitioner of this important rite.

“circumcision is not a crime but a commandment practiced by the Jewish religion for more than 3000 years said Rabbi Margolin.

The last time anybody was arrested for performing circumcision was under the Nazis, whose first laws in their blind and irrational hatred of the Jewish people targeted this practice. That the Irish legal system is now second to Nazi germany is a sad and incongruous indictment.

Circumcision has been adopted by other religions and recognized as a practice by the World Health Organization, which recommends in many cases the circumcision of boys. About thirty percent of the men in the world – and not only Jews, are circumcised and live healthy lives,” notes Rabbi Margolin.

The chairman of the ‏European Jewish Association stated that the arrest sends a clear message that Jews are no longer welcome in Ireland and demands that the Mohel be released even before Shabbat begins on Friday evening.

“The arrest not only infringes the fundamental right of freedom of religion but it also humiliates the parents involved by suggesting that they do not really care for their children. All those parents who circumcised their children, went through the same procedure themselves and of course they would not have done so if it involved “physical or mental harm to the newborn, above all a mohel such as Rabbi Yonathan goes through many, many years of study and training before even being allowed to practice. We are not barbarians!”

Rabbi Margolin appealed to the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, who at the beginning of the year was hosted by EJA at Auschwitz, to act for the immediate release of the Mohel and promote legislation that would prevent such an arrest in the future.
Rabbi Margolin also appealed to the President of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Herzog, whose grandfather served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, with a request that he work this morning with the heads of the Irish government for the immediate release of the Mohel

While the world at large is rightly concerned about Russia-Ukraine, a years-long effort to save Levi has failed. Levi has been imprisoned in appalling conditions in a primitive country since 2016 just because he is Jewish. After years of attempts to free him with the mediation efforts of another country, that route has failed. I was a small link in that liberation campaign, one without success I was told on Friday from the US.
A feeling of helplessness takes over me. Powerlessness and incomprehension too about Ukraine and Russia. The rabbis in Ukraine are in a very difficult situation. Some have fled and are now without a source of income, mostly in Israel, neck-deep in worries. Others have stayed, and don’t really know what to do, completely at a loss as to which way it will go.
I spoke to the chief rabbi of Dnieper on the phone. He can’t leave, he told me, because the older members of the congregation can’t leave either. There isn’t a single hair on his head that contemplates leaving his community, of abandoning his (sinking?) ship, as long as the majority of his crew members and passengers cannot or do not want to take that escape route.
More and more I think about my parents and their generation and the decisions they had to make to survive. My parents made the right decisions and that is why I exist and the second generation exists. But the great majority of then made the wrong decision and literally and figuratively had no way out. At the time, many thought that everything would not go so smoothly and that the Netherlands, like in World War I, would be able to escape the macabre dance again
And since I already started this new week from a low point, I can add something to it. Some of the Ukrainian rabbis or teachers have fled and are now elsewhere in Europe. They thought they could dedicate themselves to the Jewish Ukrainians who also fled to become their rabbi again, as it were, but outside of Ukraine. But it’s not all that simple. The interest in maintaining Jewish contacts is very low for the vast majority of people. For most, Judaism was a ticket to get away and seek shelter. But now that they’re gone and the first shelter is over…
Whether it is war or not, man remains human in times of war and also in his selfish behaviour. Some of the rabbis I know from Ukraine really couldn’t go back and are now in Israel, caring for their Ukrainians in the Holy Land. And I can again be a small link to financially support those rabbis and therefore be a part of their commitment, as it were. The rabbis who really can’t go back because their congregations have been totally destroyed are also supported. The stragglers too. But that in-between group? To return or not to return? And what about wife and children? That intermediate group is having a hard time, because they are either viewed as heroes or/and as traitors.
By the way, amidst the gloom, I also received a nice message. A Jewish-Dutch family that has been trying to settle in Israel for more than a year has finally managed to go through the long bureaucratic road of forms and signatures and can now finally make Aliyah. And another positive message is my appointment as a jury member. You see: no complaints about rabbinical variety. You may remember the discussion about the German war cemetery in Ysselsteyn. The result, after many discussions and meetings, was that a
monument was erected in memory of the 102,000 Jews, Roma and others who were not allowed a grave, unlike the murderers. Six artists can give a presentation of ‘their’ artwork and I will be one of the jury members. And so, I will be in Ysselsteyn on November 22. You will read about it here first!