AJC Hails Congressional Action on European Jewish Security

NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for unanimously passing legislation that encourages collaboration between the U.S. and European governments to assure and enhance security for Jewish communities across Europe.

H. Res. 354, adopted by a vote of 418 to 0, also promotes formal partnerships between governments and Jewish community security groups, and training of law to monitor, prevent, and respond to anti-Semitic violence.

Rep. Chris Smith, a leader of the House bipartisan Task Force on Global Anti-Semitism, introduced the resolution. Co-sponsors included Reps. Eliot Engel, Ted Deutch, Kay Granger, Steve Israel, Nita Lowey, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Peter Roskam. Earlier this year, AJC encouraged the formation of the task force.

"This welcome initiative will bolster efforts to confront rising anti-Semitism and other security threats to Jews in Europe," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Anti-Semitism is a cancer that, left unchecked, will metastasize and threaten to destroy the democratic and pluralistic nature of Europe."  

AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization, convened a conference in Brussels in May and released an action plan under the title "A Defining Moment for Europe." The AJC action plan, which influenced the recommendations in H. Res. 354, calls on European governments to make the fight against anti-Semitism an urgent priority nationally and collectively for the entire EU. It specifies steps for governments to assess the severity of the problem; provide for the security of Jewish institutions and communities; invest in education that imparts European values; take on purveyors of anti-Semitism on the Internet and in social media; and recognize that vilification of Israel too often is a cover for expressions of anti-Semitism.

On a related note, Mayors United Against Anti-Semitism, an AJC initiative calling on municipal leaders to publicly address and take concrete actions against rising anti-Semitism, became an international movement on October 7, 2015, when Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined the initiative, launched in the United States in July. To date, 305 mayors and municipal leaders, representing 80 million people across the U.S., have signed the statement.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

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