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May 28, 2004/Sivan 8 5764, Vol. 56, No. 36
Mideast, anti-Semitism worry Europe's Jews
RUTH ELLEN GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BUDAPEST - European Jews are struggling to find an effective way to assert their identity and articulate a coherent, collective voice in a rapidly changing Europe.
This challenge, European Jewish leaders say, is breaking stereotypes and fostering a positive sense of self-definition in the face of looming challenges that have put recent optimistic models of Jewish integration to the test.
"One of the biggest challenges we have is to get Jews generally and the world at large to recognize that we are not just defined by the three elements of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and defense of Israel,"Jonathan Joseph, the incoming president of the European Council of Jewish Communities, told JTA.
Joseph was elected president of the European Council of Jewish Communities at the conclusion of the third General Assembly of European Jewry, a three-day shmooze-fest held in Budapest on May 20-23 that gathered a record number of Jews from across Europe.
Sponsored by the European Council of Jewish Communities and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the G.A. provided an opportunity for more than 1,000 Jewish activists from more than 40 countries to party, network and assert their commitment to the ideal of a European Jewish identity.
But a series of uncertainties cast a shadow on the otherwise exuberant celebration.
These included external questions, such as the impact on Europe's Jews of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Islamic fundamentalism and international terrorism, which all have become acute since the last European G.A., held in Madrid in 2001.
Conference participants also focused on deep-seated internal challenges, such as articulating a coherent Jewish voice in Europe, strengthening European Jewish leadership, evaluating a Jewish role in European affairs - and even defining whether a European Jewish identity really exists.
"Are European and Jewish interests compatible?" Paris-based historian Diana Pinto, long a champion of asserting a European Jewish identity in Europe, asked delegates. "In the past four years, a feeling has emerged that the answer is no."
The Budapest gathering took place just three weeks after the European Union expanded eastward to embrace Malta, Cyprus and eight former Communist countries, including Hungary.
Holding the meeting in Budapest was a deliberate recognition that the Cold War divide that for decades had split Europe - and Europe's Jews - no longer exists.
But European Jews are looking forward to the effects of E.U. expansion with a mixture of eagerness and anxiety. And the conflicting emotions, combined with worry over anti-Semitism and the continuing conflict in the Middle East, had a noticeable impact on the G.A.'s atmosphere.
"We are looking at a politically united Europe for the first time ever," Joseph told delegates. "We are experiencing a reawakening of Jewish life and culture in Europe on a scale not seen for 100 years."
The European Council of Jewish Communities, funded in large part by the JDC, is a service organization that aims to facilitate cooperation and communication among Jewish communities and organizations, as well as to promote initiatives fostering Jewish culture and heritage, Jewish education, social welfare and communal development.
A new mission statement prepared for the G.A. stressed that it also aims to represent Jewish interests at E.U. headquarters in Brussels on issues that could affect Jewish communities.
These issues include moves in some countries to limit or ban Jewish ritual practices, such as kosher slaughter and ritual circumcision, on the grounds of animal or children's rights.
They also include ensuring Jewish input in the promotion of civil society and democratic ideals in the new Europe.
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