‘Holocaust was a scam’ projected on Swedish synagogue during international antisemitism conference

(Brussels 1st October 2021) Belgian Constitutional Court decision to uphold effective ban on Kosher slaughter is an opportunity for other European Countries to stand fully behind their Jewish Communities and protect this central tenet of faith and practice.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin adds that European countries must not fall into the trap of being ‘two faced: solidly protecting us from antisemitism on one side, whilst making it impossible for Jews to practice their faith by legislating against us on the other”.
The Belgian constitutional court on Thursday upheld a decision by the European Court of Justice banning religious slaughter without pre-stunning, thereby also upholding a similar decision by the Belgian Walloon and Flemish governments.
In a statement this morning, Rabbi Menachem Margolin – Chairman of the Brussels based European Jewish Association, a pro-Jewish advocacy organising representing hundreds of communities across the continent – lamented the move but said it provided an opportunity for European countries to show their support to Jews:
“The Belgian Constitutional Court have shamefully upheld a decision that is openly hostile to a fundamental pillar of Jewish practice.
“What gets to the Jewish Communities the most is the two-faced approach of some countries towards Jewish Communities. On the one side they are solidly supportive when it comes to the fight against antisemitism, on the other they have no difficulty in effectively legislating Jewish faith and practice out of existence.
“Worse still these countries are blissfully ignorant of this massive contradiction and its catastrophic effects on Jews across Europe. This decision, if replicated, is a real threat to Jewish life across Europe. Every bit as threatening as rising antisemitism, and in a sense even worse as it directly targets the very tenets of our beliefs. Now is the time for European Countries to stand behind their Jewish Communities and leave Belgium isolated and an outlier of how not to treat Jews”.
 

La EuropeanJewishAssociation, EJA por sus siglas en inglés, ha iniciado su conferencia anual en la ciudad de Oporto, en Portugal, coincidiendo con los 75 años desde la independencia de Israel y el centenario de la comunidad judía en la ciudad portuguesa que comienza a dar pasos cada vez más grandes en el presente. En un encuentro que ha reunido a líderes, representantes y periodistas de las comunidades judías (aunque también con excepciones) se ha promovido una sentencia al antisemitismo que crece en Europa y amenaza con expandirse hacia el resto del mundo. 

La votación y ratificación de los líderes judíos para llevar la discusión del antisemitismo a Bruselas fue el cierre de una jordana que deja una sensación y una valentía para ir por nuevos desafíos.

Mientras los cohetes de la Yihad Islámica desde la Franja de Gaza cruzaban a territorio israelí y los atentados terroristas se incrementaban desde el norte hasta el sur, alrededor del mundo se lograba detectar más de 50 ataques antisemitas por día. Sobre esta cifra, entre otras cosas, puede concluirse que en la realidad estos ataques son muchos más que los que se denuncian.

Al mismo tiempo en España, un país democrático y que abraza el estado de derecho, la comunidad judía de Barcelona era atacada en su sinagoga Maimónides. Pocos meses antes, la alcaldesa de la ciudad catalana, Ada Colau, promovía la ruptura de los lazos de hermanamiento con Tel Aviv y lo presentaba como una deuda pendiente en su activismo político. En año 2023, la alcaldesa de Barcelona hizo política con el antisemitismo. La situación es todavía peor en países como Holanda, donde los representantes de la comunidad señalan el temor y rechazo de los judíos a vivir allí, en Bélgica, la capital de la Unión Europa o en Alemania. 

La desinformación y la falta de rigurosidad periodística a la hora de cubrir el conflicto en Oriente Medio queda siempre en evidencia ante cada escalada entre Israel y grupos terroristas de los territorios bajo control palestino. Esta distorsión ocurre en América Latina como también en Europa, en donde los títulos de muchos medios de comunicación equiparan la defensa de un país soberano y la conformación de una agrupación denominada, ni más ni menos, como yihad.

Aunque sea hasta absurdo aclararlo, jamás puede inferirse que en Oriente Medio hay un enfrentamiento simétrico, sino una utilización del terrorismo escudado en hombres, mujeres y niños civiles a quienes utilizan de escudos humanos cuando los operativos de las FDI desbaratan células yihadistas en la Franja de Gaza o en Judea y Samaria.

El punto central de la conferencia en Oporto tiene que ver con el antisemitismo frente al exponencial crecimiento de los ataques, hostigamiento y persecución ya no sólo contra los judíos, sino también contra los no judíos que defienden a Israel o que simplemente no abogan en equiparar a un país con el terrorismo. La desinformación en la política del Medio Oriente lleva a un regadero de violencia y guerra discursiva en las principales redes sociales. 

Hay un reclamo persistente de los líderes de las comunidades judías europeas para controlar y ser proactivo en la denuncia del contenido antisemita que se revista de teorías conspirativas y una espiral del racismo. La preparación y el activismo que promueven los grupos de líderes jóvenes es para destacar: es importante llevar más y mejor información a las universidades que son las casas de estudio en donde se están formando académicamente los dirigentes de un futuro no tan lejano.

En este sentido, una de las patas jóvenes de la organización, Juan Caldes Rodríguez, presenta su plan desde Bruselas que debería ser considerado también para auxiliar a las comunidades judías en América Latina que están emprendiendo una batalla muy desigual contra el antisemitismo en países donde los grupos proiraníes y el islamismo toma cada vez más fuerza alimentándose de la baja calidad institucional, judicial y democrática. La lucha contra el antisemitismo debe ser parte de la agenda política iberoamericana, impulsando y formando a quienes decidan pelear por la verdad.

Dos días junto a la EJA en Oporto permiten a un no judío, como es mi caso, conocer parte de la realidad que las comunidades viven. Resulta increíble escuchar en el año 2023 que hay una comunidad que busca ser excluida y es constantemente amenazadaante de los ojos de una opinión pública internacional que no sabe, no puede o no quiere enfrentar al enemigo en común. El silencio aturde y la comunidad judía comienza a alertar y a moverse para que el pasado no se repita.

https://www.semanariohebreojai.com//articulo/6804

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
 
Vaccine loses to the Minister
 
Today my eyes fell on Michel Waterman’s column in the NIW in which he writes: “I have to hand in my column today and I don’t have a subject yet. I can tell you that my admiration for columnists who produce on a daily basis has greatly increased.”
After reading this I flattered myself wondering if that compliment was meant for me. And so the question arose in my mind: Am I a rabbi or a columnist? But then I also thought back to that psychotherapist who saw my diary as a therapy. After some thinking I came to the conclusion that my diary is a combination of 1: rabbi 2: columnist 3: therapy.
 
And so Waterman’s compliment was not addressed to me. A pity, because every now and then I do need a pat on the back (with the elbow of course, because of corona!), Especially when I’m under fire again.
 
A somewhat out-of-context headline made a few front pages, after which people responded. That was great because it means I don’t write for deaf ears – my message gets through.
 
What almost bothered me was that a (foreign) colleague, who apparently has little else to do than follow my diary, got in touch with a non-Jewish journalist to protest against the (admittedly clumsy) headline.
 
It went through my mind to send him a WhatsApp with my phone number. Then at the next opportunity he can first make a phone call before turning a molehill into a mountain. But I did not send that WhatsApp and I am not going to send it. Reason?
I Learned from the conversation between Avraham and Lot about which was read last Shabbath in all the synagogues of the world: “A strife arose between the herdsmen of the flocks of Awram and the herders of the flocks of Lot…. Then Awram said to Lot, Let there be
 
no strife between me and you, and between my shepherds and your shepherds…. if it is to the left, I will go to the right, if it is to the right, then I will go to the left (Bereshis/ Genesis 13: 7-9).
 
Why, we may ask, did Abraham leave the choice to Lot? The area, later Israel, was nevertheless the property of Avraham. G-d had promised him this piece of land. He could have shown Lot that he had the best papers!? If we take a grammatical look at the Hebrew
 
text, we see that the Hebrew word for contention is the first time in the masculine form and the second time in the feminine form. Quarrels arise most quickly between people who spend a lot of time together. So,the most appropriate place for disputes is marriage! How do we handle this? Should the man try to be right? Should the woman stand firm?
 
The best way to deal with (marital) differences of opinion is: accept! And that is why the word twist is once in the feminine inflection and once in the masculine. Avraham understood that he could have been right with Lot, but also realized that it is better to just let the adversary, Lot in this case, have his way.
 
And so I will not approach my old colleague on this and when we meet again, just pretend my nose is bleeding! Therapeutically (3) I have written it off with this one, I have made a column (2) of it and, most importantly, I have learned (1) from our patriarch Abraham!
 
So, what we notice is that people are often unable to see and / or think outside their own limited cocoon. Such a thing is called egotosm, a consequence of the idol ‘I’.
 
And that problem is unfortunately frequently encountered in our society and can be very harmful.
 
Dr. Marcel Levi, medical director of ten London hospitals and the son of my former president of the Sinai Center, believes the corona vaccine should be administered now. But the British Minister does not want that yet because perhaps one in 50,000 could suffer from an adverse reaction because the vaccine has not yet been 100% tested. Levi explained to the Minister that even if one in 50,000 gets an unwanted side effect, it is still worth using the vaccine now as it can prevent hundreds from becoming infected with corona and a general lockdown of society. severely dislocated.
 
The Minister responded to this, according to the newspaper that Dr. Levi quoted that if hundreds die from corona, he, the Minister, will hardly be blamed. But if even one person falls victim to the vaccine he has approved, he will be inundated with criticism. The British Minister is thus also a follower of the idol ‘I’, like my colleague, except that the behaviour of the Minister, G-d forbid, causes people to die, but the behaviour of my colleague has a positive result: a topic for my day!