PASSOVER GREETINGS FROM RABBI MARVIN HIER

This Passover marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps culminating with the 60th anniversary of the final defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8th. But what has the world learned from those horrible years? For today, in 2005, Jews in Europe are more fearful about their future than at anytime since the downfall of the Nazi Third Reich.

In a recent interview Paul Spiegel, President of the Central Council of Germany’s 100,000 Jews stated, "The threshold for expressing antisemitic prejudices has dropped significantly…among groups of people in which I wouldn’t have expected it. But now we’re seeing [antisemitism] among intellectuals, in academic circles…There is a certain acceptance developing of things that deserves the attention of all democratically-minded people. I’m talking about desecrations of Jewish cemeteries, not once a month or once a week but almost daily."

In the UK, a shocking exposé in this week’s Sunday Times , reports that hostility towards Jewish students at British universities is escalating as academics push boycotts of Israeli educational institutions, teachers, researchers and goods. According to Luciana Berger a close friend of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s son, Euan, she has been forced to resign from a Student Union after being abused and spat at because she is Jewish. At the same time, a Member of Parliament has just called for economic sanctions against Israel, even as prospects for Middle East peace are becoming a reality. According to author Douglas Davis, "Some British universities are reminiscent of Germany in the 1930’s. Let us not forget that the first place Hitler had Jews banned from was the universities."
 Photo above: Israeli students gather beside the Jewish Memorial in the former concentration camp Bergen-Belsen to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its liberation by British troops on April 15, 1945.

In France, an official report released last month described anti-Jewish acts at a 15-year high reaching "worrying" levels unseen since 1990.

And in Turkey, a Moslem country where Jews have found safe haven for hundreds of years, the Center had to protest to the nation’s Foreign Minister after learning that Hitler's Mein Kampf is being sold in four different editions as the bestseller in Istanbul’s bookshops, street stalls, and at the international airport. Also being sold are such antisemitic screeds including Henry Ford's The International Jew, and the Russian Czarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (see photo right). Beyond Europe, last week New Zealand Member of Parliament John Tamihere declared that he was "sick and tired" of hearing about Jews gassed in the Holocaust.

There is no more significant way to commemorate these important 60th anniversaries than to help empower organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center with the support and resources needed to carry on the battle against antisemites everywhere in the world.

And we are doing just that.

Each and every day our representatives in the United States, Europe and around the world are on the frontlines of a complex and ever shifting struggle against antisemitism. As one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families, as an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe, Center officials are meeting with world leaders, attending international conferences, speaking out, and acting on your behalf against antisemitism and racism worldwide. And on this Passover we are in the final stages of producing, Ever Again!, a cutting-edge documentary that reveals the shocking reality of antisemitism in Europe today. We will use this film to break through the apathy and cynicism that embattled Jewish communities face every day.

But we cannot do it alone. To be an innovative and effective presence in the international arena we need your partnership. We can only be as effective as your support allows us to be. Help us better carry on this fight by using this link to send in a contribution to support our crucial work and by forwarding this email to your family and friends.  


Wishing you and your family a joyous Passover.

We need your support to continue our work. 
Please click here to support the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
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