KRAKOW – The European Jewish Parliament expressed concern at growing
anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe at its General Assembly in Krakow, Poland, this
week.
Five Polish MPs, members of the European Parliament, professors
from the city’s Jagiellonian University and representatives of Poland’s Jewish
community took part in the assembly held on Monday and Tuesday in Krakow’s city
hall.
The assembly called on EU leaders to take strong measures to ensure
the security and safety of Jews living in Europe in view of the increase in
anti- Semitism and the rise of far-right parties such as Jobbik in Hungary and
Svoboda in Ukraine.
Klaudia Klimek, a Polish member of the European
Jewish Parliament from Krakow, told The Jerusalem Post that the decision to
choose Krakow as the host city for the Assembly was a symbolic step.
“The
Jewish Parliament has existed for one year and we had three meetings in Brussels
last year. This year we decided to hold our meeting in Poland to coincide with
the International Holocaust Day which took place at the end of
January.
We chose Krakow because it’s a symbolic city. Before WWII there
were many Jews living here, the second-largest Jewish community in Poland,” she
said.
“We have several committees within the Jewish Parliament and we
discussed ideas for future projects that we are planning to run in the next
years. For example, we have a media committee, and we would like to give a
bigger voice to the Jewish Parliament and to European Jewish journalism to let
everyone know from first-hand what is happening in the European Jewish
Parliament and the local Jewish communities in Europe,” Klimek said.
“We
also discussed the rise of anti-Semitism and rightwing parties in Europe. We had
a Hungarian representative who gave a speech on the anti-Semitism in
Hungary.
That’s one of the reasons we decided to hold our meeting next
year in Budapest and cooperate with the Hungarian government.
“We also
received an invitation from the Polish Parliament members to visit the Sejm [the
Polish Parliament] next year and commemorate 69 years since the liberation of
Auschwitz,” Klimek told the Post.
The Brussels-based European Jewish
Parliament was founded in 2011 by the European Jewish Union and inaugurated in
February 2012. Its 120 members represent 47 countries.
On Tuesday, the
members of the General Assembly visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. For some of the
European Jewish Parliament members it was the first visit to the former Nazi
death camp. A few rabbis, members of the Jewish Parliament, held a brief
ceremony and prayed in the memory of the victims.
Joel Rubinfeld,
co-chairman of the European Jewish Parliament, told The European Jewish Press
that the Jewish Parliament members consider fighting anti-Semitism the most
important current issue and that he has recently seen an increase in the number
of anti- Semitic incidents, including in Western European countries such as
France and Britain.
“The best way to avoid tragedies repeating themselves
is to learn from the mistakes of the past. We will devote time and energy needed
to try to reverse this extremely dangerous situation,” Rubinfeld said.
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