Leadership Talk by the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism

Abstract

Even today, the Jewish community of Vienna sets an excellent example of a positive interaction between the community and wider society, thanks to organizations such as the Makkabi Sports Club, the Maimonides Center, the Job Training Centre JBBZ, the psychosocial center ESRA, to name a few. The fact that Jewish life was revived at all in such a way after the Shoah was certainly not a given and testifies to the inherent strength of the community here in Vienna. At the European Commission, we are very much aware that Europe has a specific obligation to protect and support Jewish life. Europe would not be Europe without its two thousand years of European Jewish history, cherishing the continuation of this special symbiosis. The European Commission is about supporting vibrant Jewish life across Europe, and all our antisemitism policies are geared towards it. With this contribution, I will add a European perspective to our reflections on how to tackle this cancer and prevent it from spreading its malignant manifestations further across European societies and indeed to end antisemitism. While none of us are naïve enough to think that this will be any time soon, I like the exclamation mark in the title of “An End to Antisemitism!” If we do not aim for the maximum, we will not achieve the minimum. Antisemitism is not a national problem only! It is a European one. It touches the very heart of the European project. And it needs to be tackled with the greatest rigor on all levels, European, national and local. Yet, in Europe at the start of 2018, antisemitic prejudices are found in all forms, in all countries, irrespective of the size of the Jewish community, and in all strata of society. Sometimes violent, sometimes “only” as oral pinpricks, by questioning the right to a Jewish identity in public. Where antisemitic incidents are recorded properly, figures are record-high: Four antisemitic incidents per day were recorded in Germany and the UK (in 2017)1 and France (in 2016),2 while in all European countries the Jewish community represents significantly less than one percent of the population.