Meeting with Mr. Abdallah Chatila

December 4, 2019

It’s not every day you get to meet a bona fide hero. Following our big campaign against the auctioning of Nazi memorabilia, our Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin and our Director of Public Affairs Alex Benjamin travelled to Geneva to meet with Mr Abdallah Chatila.

Mr Chatila decided to buy 600,000Euro worth of this memorabilia when he heard our aggravation at the sale, with the express purpose of taking it out of the marketplace, and entrusting it to the Jewish Community.

We met with Mr Chatila not only to thank him personally and present him with a gift (we planted 18 trees in Israel for him – 18 being the numerical value of Chai the Hebrew word for life), but to explore future areas for co-operation.

Mr Chatila will be joining an EJA trip to Auschwitz in January, along with a 100 parliamentarians, where he will join us in our call for an end to the macabre and disgusting sale in Nazi trinkets, and we will present him with an award for his action.

A humble man, Mr Chatila told us he had no interest in the pieces per-se, but bought them and gave them away to send a message: Hitler and the Nazis are the personification of death, and such items do not belong amongst the population at large.

He said he didn’t want to be remembered as the man who bought the hat, but for the message behind his action. We reassured Mr Chatila that his action is what will be remembered, that it serves as a selfless example to humanity, and that we will work together to ensure that no other like-minded person is forced to do the same – because governments will simply ban such sales.

We thank Mr Chatila again and look forward to fruitful co-operation in making this campaign a reality in the months ahead.

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Additional Articles

USA: venduto all’asta l’orologio di Hitler

La protesta delle comunità ebraiche non si fa attendere.

È stato venduto all’asta per $ 1,1 milioni a un offerente anonimo l’orologio che si ritiene sia appartenuto al leader nazista Adolf Hitler negli Stati Uniti. L’orologio Huber, risalente al 1930, presenta incisioni di una svastica e le iniziali AH. Messo all’asta negli Stati Uniti da Alexander Historical Auctions, l’orologio è stato descritto sul sito web del banditore come una “reliquia della seconda guerra mondiale di proporzioni storiche”. L’orologio è un orologio da polso reversibile Andreas Huber in oro che fu probabilmente dato a Hitler il 20 aprile 1933 nel giorno del suo 44 ° compleanno, quando fu nominato insieme all’ex cancelliere Paul von Hindenburg cittadino onorario della Baviera. L’orologio presenta tre date: la data di nascita di Hitler, la data in cui divenne cancelliere e il giorno in cui il partito nazista vinse le elezioni nel marzo 1933. L’orologio è stato commissionato dal Partito Nazista o NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) e assemblato e inciso dalla ditta orologiera tedesca Andreas Huber, a Monaco di Baviera. Secondo la casa d’aste, l’orologio fu preso come souvenir quando circa 30 soldati francesi presero d’assalto il Berghof, il rifugio di montagna di Hitler, nel maggio 1945. Successivamente si pensa che l’orologio sia stato rivenduto e tramandato attraverso diverse generazioni.

Durante il dominio di Hitler nella Germania nazista tra il 1933 e il 1945, circa 11 milioni di persone furono uccise, sei milioni delle quali furono uccise perché erano ebree. In una lettera aperta firmata da 34 leader ebrei, la vendita è stata descritta come “ripugnante”. “Questa asta, inconsapevolmente o meno, sta facendo due cose: una, dare soccorso a coloro che idealizzano ciò che il partito nazista rappresentava. Due: offrire agli acquirenti la possibilità di titillare un ospite o una persona cara con un oggetto appartenente a un assassino genocida “, ha detto il rabbino Menachem Margolin, presidente dell’Associazione ebraica europea (EJA) con sede a Bruxelles. La casa d’aste, tuttavia, ha affermato che la vendita era finalizzata a preservare la storia.

POLISH SENATE KICKS KOSHER MEAT EXPORT BAN UNTIL 2025 – EU JEWISH HEAD VOWS TO KEEP ON FIGHTING “AS WE HAVE FOR GENERATION AFTER GENERATION”

Brussels 14 October 2020. After the Polish Senate voted today to postpone the controversial animal rights Bill provisions to ban the export of Kosher meat, European Jewish Association Chairman (EJA) Rabbi Menachem Margolin said he was encouraged by the clear opposition to the Bill but vowed to keep fighting to stop any eventual ban.
The EJA Chief had instigated an open letter signed by dozens of Jewish Leaders and Parliamentarians across Europe and Israel in which signatories voiced their opposition to the provisions on Kosher meat in the Bill and called on the Polish Government to reject them.
In a statement today Rabbi Margolin said,
“The provisions in this Bill relating to Kosher exports have had a very rough ride. It is clear that they enjoy little support from farmers and command little enthusiasm from the Senate itself.
“This is encouraging and we thank all of those Senators who have responded in such a strong way and who have taken what is a principled stand, as well as all the parliamentarians and Jewish leaders from across Europe who made their voices heard.
“But the battle isn’t over. It has merely been postponed. If you kick a can down a road, you will eventually run out of road.
“We will continue to oppose this Bill, today, tomorrow, next week, next month and for the next years. Just as we have from generation after generation whenever our way of life, our very faith is called into question. In the weeks and months ahead we will redouble our efforts to ensure that 2025 becomes permanent instead, starting with the Polish Sejm where this Bill next appears for a vote.”
In closing Rabbi Margolin said,
“The European Jewish Association will never falter in its determination to stand up for Jewish life, tradition, values and practice wherever and whenever they are under threat in Europe”

MEP Charlie Weimers open letter on Hezbollah

The Fifth "MAHAR" Conference Budva, Montenegro

This year “MAHAR” (tomorrow) conference was dealing with the important question:  “Whither will Jewish Diaspora go?”
Rabbi Menachem Margolin (Founder of European Jewish Association) was invited to share his thoughts and ideas on the issue of the European Jewry Future.

For more information on the conference klick HERE

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