AJC's Andrew Baker Urges Helsinki Commission to Combat European Anti-Semitism

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Dec 02, 2011, 10:43 ET

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's director of international Jewish affairs, today appealed to the U.S. Helsinki Commission to help combat anti-Semitism fueled by media and politicians in Europe, and to prevent deadly violence such rhetoric can spur against Jews.

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"Opinion surveys in many European states reveal anti-Jewish sentiments are still held by significant numbers of the population," said Baker, who also is a special envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"These percentages may fluctuate over time, but the overall picture remains a distressing one, and it has direct and immediate consequences for Jewish communities," he said in a testimony before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission.

Anti-Semitism in Europe is typically fueled by mainstream media and other public discourse, Baker said. While continuing to circulate centuries-old libel and conspiracy theories, the media have also turned to fierce attacks against Israel – causing many in the audience to take out their dislike of Israeli policies on all the Jews.

"A new phenomenon has been the identification of the State of Israel as a source for anti-Jewish prejudice," Baker said. "Frequently Jews and Israel are conflated, and those harboring antagonistic views of Israel ascribe the same attributes to Jews and local Jewish communities."

Some European nations have also seen attempts to downplay the Holocaust and hijack Holocaust education classes, when Arab and Muslim students divert the discussion toward Middle Eastern conflicts and criticism of Israel. Jews who are visibly identifiable as Jews – for instance, by wearing Orthodox garb or Jewish symbols - are often at risk of verbal and physical attacks, particularly on the streets of cities and neighborhoods with large Muslim populations.

Violence and vandalism are forcing Jewish communities to divert parts of their limited funds from educational and religious purposes to security measures, he said.

Praising the Helsinki Commission for its role in combating anti-Semitism in Europe, Baker noted that "it was this Commission… that pushed and prodded a reluctant diplomatic bureaucracy here in Washington to press the OSCE to take up the problem."

As a reminder of where condoning anti-Semitic rhetoric can lead, Baker recalled a postcard shown to him by former U.S. ambassador to OSCE, Steve Minikes. The ambassador, who died this fall, served at a time of anti-Semitism resurgence in 2002 and was a major driving force behind the organization of the first conference on anti-Semitism in 2003.

"I still vividly recall one evening at his residence in Vienna early on in this process when he showed me a postcard sent to him by his grandmother 60 years ago," Baker said. "It was a brief note written in pencil, telling her grandson that everything was fine. But the postmark belied the message. It was sent from Therezienstadt, and only a short time afterward she was deported to Auschwitz."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee