KRAKOW – The European Jewish Association has called on the European Union to declare a six-month emergency period regarding antisemitism, bringing in special measures to protect Jewish life.
Speaking at the annual EJA conference in Krakow on Monday, EJA chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said Europe is in an “antisemitism emergency.”
“The situation of the Jewish people in Europe today is the worst it has been since Kristallnacht,” he said.
He added that the continent was “long past the stage of warnings and prophecies.”
As a result, he said the EJA was calling for an emergency period, during which special measures would be brought in to protect Europe’s Jews.
The Amsterdam pogrom
Margolin asked the EU to properly regulate public events and to make organizers sign a code of conduct to prevent incidents, such as in Amsterdam this month.
“Every 15 minutes, another antisemitic incident happens in Europe,” he added, saying that if special measures are not put in place now to protect the community, it will be too late.
As a warning to Europe, Margolin said that without emergency procedures now, “we will start to see an exodus of Jews from Europe, ending Jewish presence on the continent.”