tuluum's Diaryland Diary
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Chanukah Greetings from the Wiesenthal Center
CHANUKAH GREETINGS FROM RABBI MARVIN HIER
Rabbi Marvin Hier
My friends, we all needed that piece of good news that the world's arch terrorist, Saddam Hussein, had finally been captured. But on the whole, 2003 has been a turbulent and unsettling time.
Ten days ago, while overnighting in Paris following my meeting with Pope John Paul II, I was walking near the Opera House when a man approached speaking in French while pointing his finger at me. My colleague walking with me explained that he was disturbed that I was wearing my skullcap in defiance of the Chief Rabbi of France who had urged French Jews not to wear their skullcaps in the streets.
The encounter brought home the point that times have really changed for Europe's Jews. That once again, Jews felt vulnerable, insecure, and frightened in one of the world's great democracies. Some people fret at comparisons to pre-World War II Europe. But what kind of a Europe is it when Jews cannot wear their skullcaps in the streets of Paris? What kind of a Europe is it where Jews in Sweden and Belgium are advised not to wear jewelry with the Star of David on it? Is this the new Europe that has come together to form a 'united states' of the continent?
I must tell you that in May 2003 when we met with President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace, he told us that he believed the attacks were generated by juvenile delinquents. But President Chirac is no longer claiming that today. Following the latest arson attack on a Jewish school near Paris (see photo right) he said that, "attacking a Jew in France is an attack on all of France."
What about Greece? For months officials dragged their feet and refused to acknowledge the antisemitism expressed in their mainstream media, the desecration of synagogues, cemeteries, and Holocaust memorials, or the art exhibition glorifying female suicide bombers displayed in a prominent Athens gallery. Only after the Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory, and happened to mention that the current situation could poison the environment leading to the forthcoming Olympics, did senior officials of the Greek government contact Israeli leaders to incorporate a number of measures to help diffuse the issue.
And, just as we released our new book, Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a refutation of the notorious antisemitic forgery, the Wiesenthal Center learned that a copy of The Protocols was displayed prominently alongside the holy books of monotheistic religion at the renovated Alexandria Library in Egypt. After vigorous protests by the Center, and action by UNESCO Director General Matsuura, one of the few U.N. officials to consistently speak out against antisemitism, the book was finally removed.
In 2004, we will undertake a major worldwide effort to awaken the international community to take the long overdue step to classify suicide bombings - the deliberate attempt to commit mass murder against innocent civilians - as a crime against humanity. This point was clearly driven home to us during our international Antisemitism Conference held at UNESCO in Paris, when our keynote speaker, Sergio Vieira de Mello, (pictured left with SWC International Liaison Director Dr. Shimon Samuels) the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the resurgence of antisemitism in the international community in his opening speech. Just three months later, he himself was murdered in a suicide attack in Iraq.
We took this matter up directly with Pope John Paul II earlier this month during our forty-minute audience with him at the Vatican. The next day, addressing a group of Christians and Moslems, the Pope said, "I appeal to you, and to all men and women of good will, to join your voices with mine as I repeat that the holy name of God must never be used to incite violence or terrorism, to promote hatred or exclusion."
In the coming months, we will meet face-to-face with world leaders to demand that such a resolution, which affects the entire world, be taken up at the European Union, other regional bodies, and at the United Nations itself.
To continue and bolster these efforts, we need your continued solidarity, activism, and leadership and need you to respond generously by contributing more then ever to help underwrite the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. I join with our dedicated staff around the world in thanking you for standing with us as we take on the growing challenges in the year to come. Wishing you and your families a happy Chanukah and a peaceful 2004.
Rabbi Marvin Hier
Dean and Founder
Simon Wiesenthal Center
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9:37 a.m. - Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003
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