T. Belman. This post includes two separate articles. The second one commits us to fight “antisemitism and other forms of racism”. I disagree. Antisemitism should not be conflated with “other forms of racism”. We should focus only on antisemitism. Similarly, there is only one Holocaust. It should not be equated with other “genocides” Antisemitism and the holocaust are unique .
Please read my article, The Holocaust was Caused by Hitler who followed Church doctrine and practices
Nearly one-third of respondents in Austria, Hungary and Poland say Jews will never be able to fully integrate into society • About one-third in Romania, France and the Czech Republic think secret Jewish network influences political, economic affairs in world.
Rabbi Shlomó Köves, chairman of Europe’s Action and Protection League and leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities, presents findings of a European anti-Semitism study at the European Jewish Association Conference of Jewish Leaders in Brussels, held from Oct. 12-13, 2021. Photo by Eli Mandelbaum.
(October 15, 2021 / JNS) Europe’s Action and Protection League (APL), in partnership with the European Jewish Association (EJA), released a European-wide survey offering a complex and detailed account of the prevalence of anti-Semitic perceptions, including widespread views in some countries that Jews exploit the Holocaust, run secret networks and will never be able to integrate into society.
The survey was commissioned with IPSOS SA, under the leadership of Professor András Kovács of Central European University, Vienna-Budapest, taking in 16 European countries with significant Jewish communities—Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—and asking respondents 70 direct questions and follow-up interviews of 1,000 individuals.
The study was published ahead of the EJA Conference of Jewish Leaders in Brussels, held from Oct. 12-13 and attended by dozens of prominent European Jewish leaders, parliamentarians and diplomats from across Europe, including vice presidents of the European Commission and video addresses by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai.
According to the EJA, the meeting represented the first time that community heads could gather to discuss new, unprecedented challenges and work to find solutions since travel restrictions were lifted.
Among the disturbing figures, the survey found that nearly one-third of respondents in Austria, Hungary and Poland said that Jews will never be able to fully integrate into society.
Approximately one-third of respondents in Romania, France and the Czech Republic agreed that there is a secret Jewish network that influences political and economic affairs in the world.
In Spain, 35 percent said Israelis behave “like Nazis” towards the Palestinians; 29 percent said the same in the Netherlands; and 26 percent agreed with the statement in Sweden.
In Latvia, a little more than a third, 34 percent, said Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own purposes; 23 percent agreed in Germany; and 22 percent agreed in Belgium.
A quarter of all those surveyed agreed with the statement that Israel’s policies make them understand why some people hate Jews.
‘A stalled race against this old virus’
Rabbi Shlomó Köves, chairman of the APL and leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities (EMIH), initiated and presented the survey.
While European anti-Semitism is well-known, “what surprised us the most was the large discrepancy between the results of anti-Semitic prejudice, the perception of safety in these countries and the number of anti-Semitic assaults,” he told JNS. “In countries where their prejudice is relatively low, according to the survey, like Sweden or the United Kingdom, the number of assaults is very high,” he explained. “It shows how complex this issue is, and that you cannot make generalizations from a survey.”
“Jews around Europe need to propose specific action plans to their governments, as well as on the E.U. [European Union] level,” suggested Köves after presenting the study.
“Whilst Europe was rightly focusing on eradicating the COVID pandemic, another virus was continuing to multiply. Anti-Semitism is deeply ingrained in Europe and hard to treat,” said EJA chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin. “Our conference represents the firing of a starting gun on a stalled race against this old virus. We have much, much more to do at a continental political level.”
“As a next step, we need to initiate an independent monitoring of anti-Semitic assaults in the member states where this is still not existent,” asserted Margolin
He noted that “education and legislative measures, as well as law-enforcement practices, are definitely a key to our fight for survival.”
Though acknowledging that European institutions are increasing resources, expertise and significant funding to tackle anti-Semitism, “we are currently well behind in keeping up with its spread, as the disturbing findings from our partners survey shows,” he said.
“APL for now, as a first step, has created a new comprehensive antisemitism database that integrates existing research and antisemitic hate-crime reports from Jewish communities across Europe,” added APL secretary Kalman Szalai.
Following the presentation of the survey, the APL called for a comprehensive E.U. antisemitism indicator, coupled with a legislative and educational action agenda. APL and EJA intend to kickstart this process with the adoption of a 10-point plan, dubbed their “10 commandments,” to fight anti-Semitism, to be taken forward by parliamentary working groups from across Europe.
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‘Anti-Semites have found new ways of attacking Jews,’ declare leaders at Malmö forum
(October 14, 2021 / JNS) The need to battle anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, especially online, was front and center on Thursday at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Anti-Semitism—Remember ReAct event in Sweden.
Representatives from more than 50 countries, in addition to NGOs, social-media organizations, Holocaust survivors and others attended the event hosted by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. The forum was initially slated to be held last year but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic and worldwide lockdowns, which led to a radical increase in online hate, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial—issues that were at the forefront of the conference.
“Over the past year-and-a-half, young people have been locked down and exposed 24/7 to online disinformation extremism and anti-Semitism,” said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress. “Never in history was a young generation so intensively brainwashed with conspiracy theories and lies, and at the same time, so unfamiliar with the tragedy of the Holocaust. …. Preventing young people from falling into extremism is one of the fundamental challenges of our time. But so far, the majority of our strategies have failed.
“We cannot win the fight against anti-Semitism without winning the fight against extremism in general,” he stressed.
The need to combat hate online was also stressed by Kathrin Meyer, secretary-general of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, who before the conference noted that “the mainstreaming of Holocaust distortion, often spread across borders via social media, is a serious challenge for us all globally as it paves?the way for antisemitism, Holocaust denial and extreme nationalism. We?are pleased to see global leaders stand in solidarity to pledge fresh commitments to fight this evil.”
Speaking to the media during the day, the Swedish prime minister said it was good that social-media companies have committed to increasing spending on combating antisemitism and pledged to stop hate speech on their platforms. Still, he added, like everyone who made pledges to combat Holocaust denial, hate and antisemitism during the conference, they would need to be held accountable.
Anti-Semitism and racism, Löfven went on to say, remain “threats to an open society and the principle of equal value of all people. But antisemitism differs from other forms of racism; [it] is in itself a conspiracy theory based on notions of Jewish powers and Jewish interest, and the secret desire to rule the world. It is a specific toxic form that drives conspiracy theories that … in its most extreme form resulted in the Holocaust.”
The arrival of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944. Credit: Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst-Zentralbild (Bild 183), German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons.
‘The Holocaust did not begin with death camps’
Other Jewish speakers included World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder, who in remarks before reporters called out the United Nations for its hypocrisy on Israel.
“What we are looking at today is something we never believed possible after the Holocaust,” said Lauder. “After the Holocaust, no one wanted to be associated with Nazis. Three generations later, most young people have forgotten; what happens now is that antisemites have found a new way of attacking” Jews by attacking Israel and saying it should not exist.
“It is on social media, on college campuses, at the United Nations, all over,” he continued. “We are going to fight back hard and go into social media. We have to fight this not only for Jewish people but for all people. There should be no hate.”
He also noted that last year, the United Nations instituted “23 resolutions against countries—17 against Israel and six against the rest of the world—that says a lot about what’s happening.”
American Jewish Committee president Harriet Schleifer, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, addressed the conference virtually, saying: “We must be vigilant to the presence of antisemitism, however innocuous it may seem and in whatever form it may take. As Holocaust historians remind us, the Holocaust did not begin with death camps; it began with words.”
Israeli leaders also presented at the conference, including the chairman of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem Dani Dayan.
“Against the backdrop of the alarming rise in antisemitism worldwide, the Malmö forum provides an important international platform to raise global awareness of the need for Holocaust remembrance, as well as an opportunity for government officials and the world community to join forces in the fight against this destructive and age-old phenomenon,” said Dayan before his formal remarks to the plenary.
“It is Yad Vashem’s mission,” he continued, “to ensure that the voices of the victims and the testimonies of the survivors will remain accessible and relevant today and for future generations. Together with international partnerships, alliances and coalitions, these fundamental tools can help us push antisemitism back to the margins of our global society.”
Holocaust survivor Dina Rajs, who attended the conference, said the forum’s focus on action was appropriate. “We all need to react and act against antisemitism and other forms of racism, against those who say what happened to me and my husband, to our families and friends didn’t happen. … We need to react and act every day, and stand up for equal rights and the rights of all, and stand up for democracy.”
It’s the same thing all over again.
Of course, Jews will never be able to fully integrate into society.
THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO!
Look at the Jewish history – every attempt to assimilate ends in failure.
No matter how hard Jews try to fit in, all these efforts freak out the surrounding population more and more until there is another nationwide pogrom and increasing efforts to get rid of the Jews even by murdering them.
We are the people that dwells alone.
I can understand being caught unawares in the 1920s and 1930s but only 75 years after the greatest Jewish tragedy in modern history?
“Fighting antisemitism” – a mouse that roared!
Doing the same thing that was PROVEN over the centuries to be a miserable failure?
Doing this when we have our own state?
The Orthodox trying another version of “Po lin” again?
With our own state doing its utmost to limit aliyah and Jewish settlement, and to create an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, and to make the lives of its 2 million Arab citizens as comfy as possible while vaccinating its Jewish population to death!?
This is beyond insane, I have no words for it.
@retired22
“solution?
Get out of Europe!”
AND OUT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!
Or the US will be remembered by the Jews like Germany was after the Holocaust “the best country for the Jews until Hitler came to power”.
And into Israel and nowhere else because everywhere else there will be a repeat of the same cycle of Jewish history.
Except that everyone (including the unaffiliated) in order to make aliyah must bring a letter from a rabbi that the rabbi knows the oleh is Jewish and his mother is Jewish.
OOPS!
solution?
Get out of Europe!
The Remaining Jews in Europe must be Masochists.
Anti Semitism is baked into European societies over many centuries & long after religious Jew hatred has faded.
What it was, and Is, is a constant drip,drip,drip of antagonism against Jews orchestrated from the societies top elites.
Like the Pogroms in Czarist Russia so many years ago that were turned on & off as the needs arose by the establishment.
Partly this has been done thru the centuries to deflect the anger built up by the general public against those who,in high places,abused them.
The elites used the Anti Semitism to deflect blame from themselves & onto the Jews.
Jews should get out of Europe & go elsewhere where they can be respected.That,to me,means east toward the Orient.East to the moderate Arab States & on to India,the Pacific Rim on to the Philippines,Taiwan,Japan & South Korea.
Forget Europe & join the world!