Rabbis warn: "If Europe does not know how to protect the Jews - it will endanger its values"
Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Conference of European Rabbis presents a seven-step plan to combat antisemitism and radicalization: revoking permits from inciters, monitoring foreign funding, closing institutions that encourage hatred, and holding digital platforms accountable.
As part of a reception held in Brussels for Rosh Hashanah, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) presented a seven-step action plan to combat antisemitism and radicalization across the continent, which have reached new peaks in recent years. The conference emphasizes that alongside the need to secure synagogues, schools, and community centers, government action is required against the factors that allow hatred and extremism to develop and take root.
The plan sets seven central demands for decision-makers designed to fight the waves of antisemitism and radicalization across Europe more effectively. Among the measures proposed by the conference:
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Revoking visas, licenses, and permits from religious figures who incite hatred or glorify terror.
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Publishing a transparent registry of significant foreign donations to religious institutions.
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Investigating funding linked to states or extremist organizations.
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Revoking charitable status and freezing funding sources for entities that encourage antisemitism or radicalization.
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Increasing oversight of religious institutions through external audits and checking study materials.
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Sharing information between regulators, education authorities, and law enforcement bodies.
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Closing institutions that repeatedly promote violence or hatred.
In the public and digital sphere, the conference demands that technology companies be required to quickly remove incitement content, to toughen the handling of incitement and hate speech within the framework of the European Union's Digital Services Act, to prosecute those who incite violence and promote terrorist organizations, to impose responsibility on organizers of demonstrations where incitement is repeated, and to ban organizations that systematically glorify terror.
The plan is published against the backdrop of a series of serious antisemitic attacks across Europe, including the murder of two worshipers at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the stabbing attack in Golders Green, the arson of ambulances outside a synagogue in London, and the attack on a synagogue in Liège using explosives. At the same time, the conference warns against extremist elements and the funding networks that support them. The manifesto noted that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been linked by security agencies and courts in Europe to the planning of attacks through proxies and the use of charitable bodies to transfer extremist funding.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said:
«It is no longer possible to suffice with fences, barriers, and security guards to protect Jewish institutions. Security is necessary, but it does not solve the problem. Europe must know how to deal with the sources of hatred, extremism, and radicalization that create the threat. If Europe does not know how to protect its Jewish citizens, it will also endanger the values upon which it is based – the rule of law, democracy, and freedom. The goal must be clear: to allow Jews to live in Europe openly, in safety, and with dignity.»
