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Europeans must act to stem anti-Semitism
By Abraham H. Foxman
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
This op-ed originally appeared in the New Jersey Jewish Standard on June 27, 2003.
Posted: June 30, 2003
It was the right occasion in the right place at the right time. Vienna was the venue, last week, where leaders from 55 nations, joined by Jewish community representatives from around the globe, came to address the issue of the anti-Semitic explosion in Europe and elsewhere.
It would have been nice if the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the host of the meeting, had done it at its own initiative. Unfortunately, like so many things Jewish in our world, it was a product of efforts by the American Jewish community and American officials (the Anti-Defamation League recommended to a U.S. Congressional OSCE meeting on anti-Semitism last year that a conference in Europe would be an important step). While the Europeans were not exactly brought kicking and screaming to do this conference, it would not have happened without American leadership.
That is an important point that cannot be discounted. Just 60 years ago, when the Jews of Europe needed a far different level of help, neither America nor American Jews did anything like this. As a Public Member to the U.S. Delegation, I listened to strong statements by a variety of significant speakers on the need to combat anti-Semitism. Yet the question that lingered with me was not how did we come to be there or what were the motives of the Europeans, but how serious were they about taking the necessary steps to transform attitudes toward Jews that were causing such havoc around the world.
The real test as to whether the Vienna conference will soon fade away as just a good show or whether it will be a trigger, the true starting point for a new worldwide effort to stand up against anti-Semitism, will lie in several areas. First, will the OSCE and European nations actively oppose the hatred and incitement against Jews flowing from the Arab world? Political, intellectual, and religious leaders from Europe must insist in a variety of forums that, the Big Lie --blaming the Jews for 9/11, growing Holocaust denial, the spread of the infamous forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Arab and Islamic world, are unacceptable. The silence of Europe in the face of this dangerous incitement against Jews must end.
Second, will they make the connection between the bias against Israel in Europe -- in the media, in governments -- and the surge of anti-Semitism on Europe's streets? Will they end the self-satisfying rationalizations that they are just engaging in legitimate criticism of Israel and recognize that the singling out of Israel created the environment in which anti-Semitism flourishes? It is time that Europeans recognize their responsibility for anti-Jewish attitudes by virtue of their double-standard, one-sided condemnations of the Jewish state.
Third, will European leaders work with their Jewish communities to diminish anti-Semitism, or will they leave it to the Jews of their countries to find their own answers? Working with the communities means prosecuting those who commit anti-Semitic acts; calling attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions what they are: anti-Semitism; enacting and implementing hate crime laws; and changing the hearts and minds of the public through the use of media and tolerance programs in the schools. In other words, serious and responsible efforts to change things.
Finally, will the Europeans begin to play a very different role in international organizations where anti-Israel bias reflected in the infamous Zionism is racism ideology is easily transformed into outright anti-Semitism? At the U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001, American and other Jews found themselves beleaguered and lonely. Europeans and human rights groups spoke out against the avalanche of hate, if at all, too little and too late.
We hope that the experience in Vienna will motivate the Europeans to do the right thing. We won't, however, count on it. We will continue to press Europe to act. We will encourage our own government and congressional representatives to continue their admirable efforts to work with their European colleagues. And we will continue to point out the dangers not only to Jews, but to democratic societies should anti-Semitism be allowed to flourish.
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