Report from European Jewish Association Annual Conference in Amsterdam, June 2024
Report from European Jewish Association Annual Conference in Amsterdam, June 2024
On the 3rd-4th of June, we at the EJA gathered over a hundred and fifty Jewish Leaders for our Annual Conference in Amsterdam – ‘Fighting back for our future’ – which became an emergency summit on the antisemitism crisis that has blighted the continent, and our communities since October 7th.
We were intent on finding practical solutions. And we did.
At a concluding plenary session before the close of the conference, having taken the many important ideas from the Jewish leaders throughout the summit, we passed a resolution of action for governments to take. It is attached, for your convenience, in 5 Languages (EN, FR, D, SP, I).
In it, we asked for the immediate establishment of an online reporting mechanism for the ongoing harassment of Jews and antisemitic threats suffered, and that this reporting mechanism be directly linked to law enforcement agencies for rapid response.
We also called for comprehensive police officer training in identifying antisemitism, dealing with antisemtism and arresting those that perpetrate antisemtic acts.
We urged each European public prosecutor office to appoint a dedicated proffesional to deal with antisemitic complaints, with a view to adopting much tougher responses to antisemitic incidents.
We reiterated our call for the IHRA definition of antisemitism to have legal “teeth” or in other words to be integrated into the country’s legal system, in order to ensure that breaches are punishable.
Finally, we delivered a criticism of EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell for his anti-Israel bias that has been a significant contributory factor to the rise of antisemitism.
The conference was widely reported in the media, and contributed to the fact that Borrell’s spokesperson had to participate in an extremely uncomfortable press conference questioning at the European Commission.
Now, we have the responsibility to ensure that the resolution is turned from words into concrete action.
We shall be advocating at the highest political and diplomatic levels on your behalf, to ensure that this happens.
Above all, the aforementioned summit and similar such activities exist for you, European Jewish Leaders, to unite in a common purpose, to share and propose solutions and to increase our impact, via our united strength.
We were also delighted to welcome new Jewish communities who have joined our Association in the past months, communities from Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Moldova. The EJA is growing and hence- your voice is growing louder.
If you could not make it this year, we invite you to join us in Madrid on the 26-27 May, 2025, coinciding with Jerusalem Day, for our next Annual Conference. We shall be delighted to welcome you and other Jewish communities that you may wish to introduce to us, that share our values.
Meanwhile, we invite you to share the attached resolution widely and to click on the link below, to see the many pictures from our event.
Pictures:http://gofile.me/62Q7y/UcqXtkts6
Yours respectfully,
Rabbi Menachem Margolin
Chairman
European Jewish Association
www.ejassociation.eu