The EJA is delighted to announce the official conclusion of our 2024 delegation to Auschwitz

AHEAD OF MUNICH AUCTION TOMORROW, EUROPEAN JEWISH CHIEF CALLS ON GERMAN POLITICAL LEADERS TO BAN SALE OF NAZI MEMORABILIA
AND PUT BUYERS ON WATCH LIST
“You all say ‘Never Again’, make it so”, urges Rabbi Menachem Margolin .
At 10am today morning (CET) a major Munich based auction house Hermann Historica is conducting an online sale of personal items such as cutlery sets, jewellery and signed letters and photographs belonging to the leadership of the Nazi Party – Himmler, Goring and Hitler himself among them.
European Jewish Association (EJA) Chairman Rabbi Menachem has written to the leadership of all of Germany’s mainstream political parties to put in place legislation that will ban the public sale of such items and – in the meantime – compel sellers to divulge the names of buyers so that they can be kept on government watch lists in the interests of public safety.
In his letter to all the political leaders, the EJA Chief suggested that the authorities would want to know who was buying the personal items of Osama Bin Laden, Anders Breivik or Stephan Ernst for public safety reasons, and those glorifying, sentimentalising or adulating the Nazis are every bit as dangerous.
Rabbi Margolin wrote,
“Almost every week we at the European Jewish Association are having to respond to attacks on community buildings and more worryingly still, physical or verbal attacks on Jews themselves. Alarmingly, it is Germany that leads Europe in the sheer volume of reported anti-Semitic incidents.
“Selling such items should be no different to selling the personal items belonging to Osama Bin Laden, or Anders Breivik. The argument of historical interest is pure semantics. As political representatives concerned with the wellbeing and safety of your citizens, we cannot help wonder if you would not want to know who was buying Bin Laden’s fruit bowl or Stephan Ernst’s photographs and why they would even want them.
“In waiting for a ban to be put in place, we urge the German authorities to compel auction houses to divulge the names of those who are buying such material, in order to know whose hands they have fallen into. The names should then be put on a government ‘watch’ list, for public safety.
“Six Million Jewish lives were lost during the Nazi regime. Today an increasing number of Jewish lives are being lost and more are threatened because of the “oldest hatred”.
“Politicians are wont to say ‘never again’. We urge you to make it so.”

I never watch movies on a plane, but this time I did. A film about the war. I don’t mean the war between Russia and Ukraine. Nor am I referring to the Israel-Gaza war. No, I just mean: ‘the’ war.

The film was about Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children from Prague on the eve of the war by taking them to England with the permission of their parents.

Horrible images of poverty, persecution and misery. Parents saying goodbye to their children. I knew these images would seriously disrupt my sleep and yet I continued to watch. But when I heard that the Netherlands refused to issue transit visas, I turned off the screen: this was not my Netherlands…

Having barely landed at Schiphol, I rushed to Nijkerk. The Christian Israel Centre was heavily defaced by so-called climate activists. Israel’s ambassador would address the employees in solidarity. I was also asked to encourage them. I did that, of course, while I had the feeling that this couldn’t happen in my Netherlands…

These same climate fanatics are also against Christians, against gays, against marriage, against rape (unless it happens under the supervision of Hamas), against a gay parade if Jews are included, against gender naming…

It would not surprise me that, in addition to the ban on the flag of Israel, the singing of a Yiddish mamme will no longer be permitted. They will think this is discrimination or apartheid… everything must and will be gender neutral.

Back in my Netherlands, because that’s how I felt in my naivety, I peacefully walked to synagogue on Shabbat morning. Wonderful, back home after three weeks!

But the way back was less pleasant: a car drove up next to me at walking pace and took the liberty of intimidatingly photographing my guests and me from the car. I passed the license plate number on to the police.

And in my own street I was then welcomed with a loud volley of free Palestine by the youth of the local New Dutch citizenry.

Among the loudmouths there are also two boys with a black skin colour, who I know are insulted behind their back by their fellow white ‘believers’.

Apparently, I am the common enemy, even though I was allowed to provide spiritual support to the black mother of these two black boys. I increasingly get the feeling that, after living here for at least sixteen generations, this Netherlands is no longer my Netherlands…

נשיאת הפרלמנט האירופי, רוברטה מצולה קיבלה הערב (יום חמישי) אות כבוד מטעם איגוד הארגונים של יהודי אירופה (EJA) בשל פעילות “יוצאת דופן” למען הקהילות היהודיות ביבשת. מצולה, שדיברה במהלך הטקס, הודתה כי “אנחנו לא עושים מספיק כדי להילחם באנטישמיות”. היא קראה לשמר את אורחות החיים של היהודים באירופה – כמו למשל שחיטה כשרה – והוסיפה כי היא “מזועזעת לראות כיצד בתי כנסת באירופה מאובטחים כמו מבצר”.

מלבד מצולה הגיעו לכנס המנהיגים השנתי למאבק באנטישמיות של ה-EJA גם נציב האיחוד האירופי אוליבר ורהלי, מזכירת הפרלמנט הצרפתי קרולין ז’נביר, נשיאת הפרלמנט הצ’כי מרקטה פקרובה, ראש ממשלת מונטנגרו דריטן אברזוביץ’, נשיא הקונגרס היהודי האירו- אסייתי אלכסנדר משקביץ, שגריר ישראל למוסדות האיחוד האירופי חיים רגב, שרים ממדינות אירופה ועשרות פרלמנטרים בכירים מרחבי היבשת.