Jewish groups criticise German panel on antiSemitism

2015/02/12 Leave a comment

Does seem a bit odd – but it also depends on the experts selected:

Jewish groups have strongly criticised the German government for creating a commission to tackle anti-Semitism that does not include a single Jew.

A spokesman for the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies in Germany said it was a “scandal”.

The centre announced on Tuesday that it was creating a rival panel of experts.

Germany’s interior ministry set up the independent commission to fight anti-Semitism and support Jewish life.

A spokeswoman for the ministry told The Associated Press news agency that the question of religious affiliation was not part of the panel’s selection process.

Anetta Kahane from the Amadeu Antonio Foundation criticised the decision. “Nobody would even think of creating a conference on hatred of Islam without Muslims or a round table on the discrimination of women without women,” she said.

The Moses Mendelssohn Centre announced that it, along with two other leading Jewish groups, would be creating an alternative commission.

Spokesman Julius Schoeps said that they would include both Jewish and non-Jewish experts on the panel.

The group of eight experts appointed by Germany’s interior ministry are due to submit a report to parliament within two years that will be the basis for a discussion on how to tackle anti-Semitism.

BBC News – Jewish groups criticise German panel on anti-Semitism.

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FAST launches high school anti-racism curriculum

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

Good cross-linkages between antisemitism, Holocaust awareness, and all forms of racism, bigotry and hate:

Voices into Action, an interactive site developed in accordance with provincial curriculum standards by a team of teachers, curriculum experts, graduate students, university professors, and consultants, contains five units that focus on issues related to human rights, genocide, prejudice and discrimination.

“It’s divided into five units and the Holocaust is a major feature throughout. It is at least a third of the content,” Miller said.

Although the program addresses racism, bigotry and hate in all forms, there is a special emphasis on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

The founders of FAST, Elizabeth Comper, and her husband Tony, a retired Bank of Montreal CEO, were inspired to create the organization after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Toronto and Montreal, including the 2004 firebombing of Montreal’s United Talmud Torah Jewish day school.

“It was important to address other human rights issues, to put them on a scale, to understand that the Holocaust was as far as you could go with hatred,” Miller said.

“The Holocaust is the first chapter of units 1, 2, 3 and 4, and unit 5 is entirely about the Holocaust and it ends with a conclusion on contemporary anti-Semitism.”

Miller added that most important is the fact that the high school program is curriculum-based and completely free of charge.

FAST launches high school anti-racism curriculum | The Canadian Jewish News.

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Rock concert, rallies overwhelm Germany’s anti-Islam group | Merkel Comments

2015/01/28 Leave a comment

Merkel is remarkably consistent in her language against all forms of antisemitism and all forms of racism. Canadian politicians, in their legitimate attention to antisemitism, have largely forgotten the broader anti-racism message:

Earlier on Monday, on the eve of Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germans had an everlasting responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.

In what appeared to be an indirect reference to PEGIDA, Merkel told a memorial for the victims of Auschwitz: “We’ve got to fight anti-Semitism and all racism from the outset.”

“We’ve got to constantly be on guard to protect our freedom, democracy and rule of law,” she said. “We’ve got to expose those who promote prejudices and conjure up bogeymen, the old ones as well as the new.”

Merkel said it was a disgrace that some Jews or those expressing support for Israel had been threatened or attacked in Germany, which was responsible for the Holocaust, and that protecting the growing Jewish community was a national duty.

Rock concert, rallies overwhelm Germany’s anti-Islam group | Reuters.

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Jewish life in Europe is about much more than anti-Semitism

2015/01/22 Leave a comment

Different angle on the antisemitism in Europe and the vibrancy of Jewish life in Europe:

But very little has been reported about what constitutes French Jewish life beyond all of that: synagogues, cultural events, kosher restaurants and new initiatives such as the opening of a Moishe House in the center of Paris last summer. Moishe House is an organization which subsidizes housing all over the world for Jewish young professionals, who then open the doors of their apartments to create “a hub of Jewish life for their peers and community members,” according to their website.

Do not misunderstand what I’m saying: anti-Semitism is a plague, in France and in many other European countries. It is even more so because in Europe Jews are often living in the very same places where their ancestors were persecuted and massacred 70 years ago, and multiple times before that. But it is not the extent of European Jewish life, in the very same way living in Israel is not all about the geopolitical tensions.

To be fair, speaking about European Jews as a single community is not exactly accurate. European countries are very diverse, and the same is true of their Jewish communities. France hosts the biggest one, with about half a million Jews, followed by the United Kingdom (300,000) and Germany (100,000). Every country, and sometimes even every city, neighborhood and congregation has a different story, and the examples of vibrant and meaningful Jewish life are countless.

…European Jewish life involves studying, celebrating Jewish holidays, going to shul, attending cultural events, gathering for both happy and sad occasions.

It may be less interesting to report than issues related to anti-Semitism, to people making aliya, to politics. However Israelis and American Jews should not forget it.

Nor should European Jews themselves. That would be terrorists and anti-Semites’ greatest victory.

Jewish life in Europe is about much more than anti-Semitism – Opinion – Jerusalem Post.

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EU Parliament’s Israel-relations czar defends removed anti-Semitism definition

2015/01/21 Leave a comment

More debate on whether or not the definition of antisemitism should include criticism of Israel or not (see What is anti-Semitism? EU racism agency unable to define term):

“However, I think the definition represented a landmark in combating anti-Semitism that should pave the road to effective institutional responsibility” in the fight against all forms of discrimination and intolerance, said [Fulvio] Martusciello [of the Group of the European People’s Party], who assumed the chairmanship of the delegation in October.

Set up in 1979, the delegation is among the European Parliament’s oldest and is responsible for maintaining and developing parliamentarian ties between the Knesset in Jerusalem and its counterpart within the European Union.

Blanca Tapia of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency said the definition of anti-Semitism was removed last year “together with other non-official documents,” and that her organization had in fact never viewed the document as a valid definition. She said her organization was unaware of any other official definition of the phenomenon and that it was not able to define it.

EU Parliament’s Israel-relations czar defends removed anti-Semitism definition | The Times of Israel.

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Juan Cole: President Hollande: Anti-Muslimism Is as Bad as Anti-Semitism

2015/01/20 Leave a comment

Worth reading, and an apparent ‘course correction’ nuancing the ‘war’ language :

French President Francois Hollande addressed the Institute of the Arab World on Friday, in a bid to reassure French Muslims, who fear being the victims of a collective guilt campaign or reprisals after the attack of radicals on Charlie Hebdo.

Hollande said:

“It is the Muslims who are the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance…

We must remember that . . . Islam is compatible with democracy, and that we must reject lumping everyone together or mixing them up with one another, and must have in France French of Muslim faith who have the same rights and the same duties as all citizens.

They must be protected.  Secularism helps in this regard since it respects all religions… Anti-Muslim actions, like Antisemitism, must be denounced and severely punished…

France was formed by movements of population and the flux of immigration.  It is constituted by the diversity of what is in France.  A number of my compatriots have attachments in the Arab world, coming from North Africa or the Near East.  They might be Jews, Muslims, Christians, they might be believers or no.  But they have a link to the Arab world and they have contributed, generation after generation, to the history of France.”

In contrast to the racist discourse of the National Front, which paints Muslims as alien and dangerous and non-Muslim French as monochrome, Hollande adopted an almost American diction of celebration of immigrant communities.

He made the argument that it isn’t importing religion into government (as many states in the Middle East unfortunately do) that guarantees minority rights but rather secular government, which tolerates all religions equally.  He is being a little idealistic about actual French secularism as it is enshrined in law and practice, but the general principle is correct.  Secular government can neutralize religious competition for the state of the sort we have seen in post-Bush Iraq, with all its disasters.

Hollande surely made waves when he put anti-Muslimism on exactly the same level as Antisemitism, and pledged to be as vigorous in combating the one as the other.  I haven’t heard any other Western leader go so far as to equate these two.

Otherwise, his acceptance of the Muslim French as full French citizens is extremely important in the hothouse atmosphere of European politics today, where many right-wing parties determinedly “other” the European Muslims.

Juan Cole: President Hollande: Anti-Muslimism Is as Bad as Anti-Semitism – Juan Cole – Truthdig.

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In Israel, debate over whether French Jews should come — or stay home

2015/01/17 Leave a comment

Interesting debate in Israel – key question highlighted:

“To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray; the state of Israel is your home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address.

If a new wave of French Jews move to Israel, they will join what was a record 7,000 compatriots who made the journey last year. But that movement is already rekindling debate among Jews, who ask: Is it better for French Jews to come to Israel or stay home and insist that French society, including the country’s swelling Muslim population, accommodate them?

The debate comes with a contemporary twist: If Jews abandon France in large numbers, are they not doing just what Islamist extremists want — ridding France of its Jews?

“I think what we are seeing now is the old Zionism, the idea that the only place to be is Israel,” said Smadar Bar-Akiva, executive director of JCC Global, an umbrella group of more than 1,000 Jewish community centers worldwide.

Immigrants from France make up a sizable portion of all Europeans migrating to Israel. In 2013, about 12,000 Europeans migrated to Israel, at least 3,000 of them French. In the first nine months of 2014, 5,000 French people migrated to Israel.

“Aliyah is wonderful. We would love to have more Jews in Israel,” Bar-Akiva said, using the Hebrew term for immigration, or “ascending,” to Israel. “But I’d also like to have strong Jews all around the world. I think that it is self-defeating for us to tell them to pack their bags and leave France.”

In Israel, debate over whether French Jews should come — or stay home – The Washington Post.

And a good history of French antisemitism by Andreas Whittam Smith along with a sobering conclusion:

If the Jews cannot live in France any longer, it would be an incredible disaster. The French Republic would have spectacularly fallen short of its ideals. Fortunately Francois Hollande, and Manuel Valls, well understand this and are taking significant actions to buttress the self-confidence of Jewish citizens. Valls also said: “If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.” Exactly right.

Anti-Semitism in France: A prejudice that hardened in 1789 and which has come in waves ever since – Comment – Voices – The Independent.

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France Has A History Of Anti-Semitism And Islamophobia | FiveThirtyEight

2015/01/16 Leave a comment

Hate crimes FranceBeyond the anecdotes, hate crime data (chart above) and public polling:

Public opinion surveys might offer some further insight into how Islamophobia is changing in France. In the spring of 2008, Pew surveyed 754 adults in the country about their views on various religious groups. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they had a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable opinion of Muslims. That figure was slightly higher than in previous years — in 2006, 35 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Muslims in 2005, and in 2004 it was 34 percent.

In 2014, Pew commissioned a new survey, this time posing a question to 1,003 French adults with a slightly different wording. Rather than asking about attitudes toward religious groups in general, the survey asked specifically about attitudes towards religious groups living in France. This time, 27 percent of respondents expressed a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of French Muslims.

Three-quarters of French respondents believe Islam is an “intolerant” religion, incompatible with the values of French society, according to a January 2013 poll by the French newspaper Le Monde and the market research company Ipsos.

Anti-semitism in France

Rabbis in France have described the country’s Jewish population as “tormented with worry” after Friday’s attack on a French supermarket. On Monday, 5,000 police officers had been sent to Jewish schools and religious sites amid security concerns in addition to 10,000 troops deployed across the country.

The nonprofit Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (the Jewish Community Security Service, SPCJ) publishes an annual summary of anti-semitic attacks reported to the organization and to police precincts in France. Its latest figures show that in 2013 there were 105 anti-semitics acts and 318 anti-semitic threats. Taken together, the number of threats and acts in 2013 was lower than in 2012 (when there were 614 total incidents) but higher than in 2011 (389).

Pew’s 2014 survey also asked about respondents’ attitudes toward French Jews, with 10 percent of respondents expressing an unfavorable opinion.

In September 2014, Fondapol, a French think tank, posed a range of questions that might reveal anti-semitic attitudes to 1,005 French people age 16 and over. The choice of wording in the survey is interesting. One question asked “when you learn that someone you know is Jewish, what reaction do you have,” to which 91 percent of respondents said “nothing in particular,” 3 percent said “I like them” and 3 percent said “I don’t like them” (the rest refused to answer). However, 21 percent of respondents said they would prefer to avoid having a Jewish president, 14 percent a Jewish mayor, 8 percent a Jewish doctor and 6 percent a Jewish neighbor.

France Has A History Of Anti-Semitism And Islamophobia | FiveThirtyEight.

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Leaving anti-Semitism and unemployment behind, French Jews make Montreal home | Haaretz

2014/12/01 Leave a comment

Interesting:

Although up-to-date data on French Jewish immigration does not exist, Monique Lapointe, director of Agence Ometz, Montreal’s primary Jewish social services and resettlement organization, told JTA she has noticed a significant increase in newcomers, especially over the past year. Inquiries, Lapointe said, have poured in through Ometz’s email system and Facebook page — including from French Jews currently living in Israel.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a huge number of [immigrants],” Lapointe said. “But it’s a trend. We’ll be anticipating more.”

Lapointe described the average immigrant as single, between the ages of 25 and 35, “very well educated and looking for a new kind of life.”

The wider Montreal Jewish community, Lapointe said, is now in the early stages of crafting a coordinated approach to handle the inflow. Thus far, it has been difficult to track newcomers, she added, partly because French Jews keep looser ties to Jewish community organizations than do their North American counterparts.

“In France, people don’t talk about Jewishness,” Lapointe said. “They’re not used to community organizations. Some will never come to see us. They don’t have this reflex.”

…The data, however, suggests that Quebec anti-Semitism is on the wane. Last year the province saw its number of reported anti-Semitic incidents fall to 250, a nearly 26 percent drop from 2012, according to B’nai Brith Canada, which tracks anti-Semitic activity across the country.

Leaving anti-Semitism and unemployment behind, French Jews make Montreal home – Jewish World Features Israel News | Haaretz.

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Holocaust memorial should be returned to its rightful home

2014/11/20 Leave a comment

Op-Ed by Bernie Farber and myself on the Daniel Libeskind memorial of Jewish refugees on the MS St. Louis not admitted to Canada prior to the outbreak of World War II:

The Wheel of Conscience serves as a reminder, in today’s troubled times, of the need for a more understanding and welcoming approach to refugees, whether we’re talking about the millions displaced in the Mideast or the refugee claimants fighting for health-care access here in Canada. And it serves as a reminder, too, of the terrible cost of the opposite approach.

Treating the Wheel as so much junk packed away in a dark warehouse for no one to see is a disgrace. Canadian Holocaust survivors have stated their desire to have the memorial at Pier 21 where it properly deserves to be.

It is time for the federal government under whose auspices Pier 21 operates to take action.

The Wheel of Conscience belongs at the gateway to Canada, where it can stand as a canary in the mine, a cry against inhumanity and intolerance. Let it no longer be a refugee, let it be granted its proper home.

http://t.thestar.com/#/article/opinion/commentary/2014/11/18/holocaust_memorial_should_be_returned_to_its_rightful_home.html

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