A delegation of the European Jewish Association (EJA) headed by its General Director Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of The Netherlands, Rabbi Avi Tawil director of the European Jewish Community Centre and Rabbi Mendel Pevzner of the European Jewish Youth Association has met with European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, in order to address Rabbi Margolin’s recent call to establish a pan-European taskforce in order to annihilate anti-Semitism, following the recent terror attack in Brussels.

“Great disasters will continue to take place unless we increase our investments in education” said Commissioner Vassiliou, and pledged to raise the issue of education programs on racism, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in all schools across EU countries in an upcoming meeting of EU education Ministers.

Rabbi Margolin, thanked Commissioner Vassiliou for her commitment to the safety of the European Jewish Community, and stated that: “Education is the key to preventing horrific hate crimes like the Brussels terror attack. We will continue our quest to establish a pan-European taskforce in order to annihilate anti-Semitism. This will act decisively both in the security and enforcement level as well as in education”.

Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of The Netherlands stated that: “I can’t walk a whole day in the street without hearing children shout the words: “dirty Jew” at me”.

Loui Deliver, a Holocaust survivor who also attended the meeting, insisted that the level of hate and anti-Semitism on European streets is higher today than it ever was – even more then in the days immediately following the Holocaust.

Group photo, in the presence of: Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Dutch Rabbinical Organization (IPOR), 2nd from the left, Androulla Vassiliou, 3rd from the left, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director General of the EJA, 4th from the left, and Rabbi Avi Tawil, Director of the European Jewish Community Centre (EJCC), 5th from the left

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)