European Jews: Should they stay or leave?
Arutz Sheva Staff
President of Conference of European Rabbis urges governments around the world to confront rising tide of violence anti-Semitism.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (archive)
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, hosted a high-level panel discussion Sunday morning titled ‘Should Jews stay or leave? When anti-Semitism turns to lethal terror: how to secure Jewish communities around the world’.
The panel was chaired by Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt and focused on the steep rise in the spread of anti-Semitic incidents and how the language surrounding anti-Semitism has rapidly evolved.
Speakers on the panel included: Professor Michel Friedman, lawyer and former Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician, Tom Malinowski, US Congressman and member of the Democratic Party in the United States, Ronen Bergman, Israeli journalist and author, and Amos Yadlin, former IDF Intelligence Chief.
A key agenda point addressed how rhetoric from both the Left and Right has made the threat of terror more prevalent and real for the Jewish community than ever before. During the discussion, the panel explored the changing nature of hate crime and subsequent threats posed against the global Jewish community. The speakers concluded that authorities in every country must stand up for pluralism and lead the fight against rampant anti-Semitism.
Speaking to the Munich Security Conference, Rabbi Goldschmidt said: “Jewish communities around the world are facing the same problem: that anti-Semitism is getting worse. Governments and societies around the world must take action to guarantee security for its minorities.”
Professor Michel Friedman, lawyer and former Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician, went further in saying that we are “facing a political crisis of European leadership, accepting the rise of anti-Semitic movements and far-right parties such as Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)”, before concluding that “we need a change in our political culture to tackle these concerning developments.”