The Diplomat
The Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), meeting yesterday in Madrid, has asked Spain to take advantage of the next Presidency of the Council of the EU to lead “concrete actions to support and strengthen Jewish communities as they face rising antisemitism”.
During the meeting, which has brought together since Monday some of the main leaders of Jewish communities from almost all over the world and has been organized in cooperation with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), a report was approved on the progress of European governments in the development of action plans to address antisemitism, which were adopted in October 2021 during the Malmö International Forum on Remembering the Holocaust and Combating Antisemitism. The WJC, founded in 1936 in Geneva (Switzerland), represents Jewish communities and organizations from some 100 countries around the world.
The report adopted yesterday by the World Jewish Congress was delivered in person to King Felipe VI, who received at the Royal Palace of El Pardo a representation of the Executive Committee headed by its president, Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder. The President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, Isaac Benzaquén, was part of the delegation.
The document was also delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a luncheon organized by the CJM itself at the ministerial headquarters in Marqués de Salamanca, During the meeting, the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Manuel Cuesta Civis, pledged, on behalf of Minister José Manuel Albares, to work with the Jewish community to eradicate antisemitism.
Spain, which last month approved a national plan to implement the European Strategy to Combat Antisemitism for 2023-2030, will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1. “As Spain prepares to take the reins of the presidency of the EU Council, it is essential that it capitalizes on recent efforts by the international community to develop concrete actions to support and strengthen Jewish communities as they face rising antisemitism,” Lauder warned. “The history of Jews in Spain is complex, filled with remarkable achievements but also deep sorrow and exile. Spain has an opportunity to write a new chapter in its relationship with the Jewish people,” he added.
The Congress meeting in Madrid began on Monday with several round tables on the role of youth and women’s empowerment in the context of Jewish communities. Yesterday’s program included a joint session of the Executive Committee and the Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA) Forum, including the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, her counterpart from the European Union, Katharina von Schnurbein, and former Spanish Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations. The internal discussions between the WJC and the SECCA will continue today.
