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European Jewish Group Unveils Plan to Counter Anti-Semitism amid Rise in Attacks
(Times of Israel) Jacob Magid - The European Jewish Association unveiled a plan to counter anti-Semitism at its annual conference on Tuesday in Paris. The plan calls on all European countries to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism; to appoint a special envoy on combating anti-Semitism; to mandate schools include lessons on anti-Semitism; and to legislate bans on anti-Semitic symbols in public, including Nazi imagery. The organization's chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said, "After 20 years dealing with this subject, I've come to the understanding that no matter how many schools we visit, and no matter how many delegations we bring to Auschwitz, it's all just a drop in the bucket. Therefore we realized that the way to fight anti-Semitism is to pass on the responsibility to European governments." In the early 2000s, when anti-Semitism began to intensify in Europe, some community leaders sought to distance themselves from Israel, not wanting to be equated to the Jewish state, which was becoming increasingly unpopular among their non-Jewish neighbors, particularly Muslim immigrants. "But now, everyone knows that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism," said Margolin.