Last updated: April 25, 2024
LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA – World Jewish Congress officials gathered in Slovenia last week to bolster the local Jewish community’s call for the government to elevate its response to heightened antisemitism since October 7.
Slovenia’s small Jewish community of less than 200 individuals has faced intensified hate since the Hamas terror group violently attacked Israel in October and took people hostage, 133 of them still in captivity. Recent antisemitic incidents targeted the Jewish Cultural Center (JCC) in Ljubljana and the Jewish Cemetery. Acts have taken the form of desecration of community property, violent gatherings in front of the JCC and verbal assaults, as well as threats against community leaders.
The WJC delegation and Slovenian Jewish communal leaders specifically called for government involvement in fostering a culture of respect and seek the implementation of concrete and efficient measures to combat the highest levels of antisemitism experienced by Slovenian Jews since the Holocaust. Following the delegation, WJC Executive Vice President Maram Stern issued an open letter to Slovenian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon, expressing his deep concern over her handling of rising antisemitism.
To date, the government has not appointed a dedicated special envoy to combat antisemitism and fostering Jewish life who would act as a focal point to implement the recently adopted National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.
“Invariably, tendentious attacks on Israel fan the flames of antisemitism,” Stern wrote in the letter to Minister Fajon. “Your government has taken an especially harsh stance toward Israel, barely even acknowledging the massacre and kidnapping of innocent Israelis, many of whom are still in captivity facing an uncertain fate. … Ultimately, the people of Slovenia and the government will be most affected by the hatred that has been metastasizing throughout the country, and only you and your colleagues can administer the cure.”
The letter was authored after the WJC group was forced to leave a meeting with Slovenia’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) after being subjected to antisemitic rhetoric by one of the government officials present.
Robert Waltl, president of the Liberal Jewish Community in Slovenia and Igor Vojtic, vice president of the Jewish Community in Slovenia (JCS), expressed gratitude to the WJC delegation during this time of unprecedented challenges. Slovenian Jews are officially represented by JCS, an affiliate of the World Jewish Congress.
WJC leaders also met with ambassadors representing Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, the WJC officials met with representatives of government of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana.
Most of Slovenia’s pre-WWII Jewish population of 1,400 was killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Although Slovenia has a framework for private property restitution, most Holocaust-era property claims in the country are categorized as heirless property, for which there is no provision in the law for restitution or compensation. The country also has no legislation covering the return of Holocaust-era Jewish communal property.
After the October 7 attacks, leaders of WJC-affiliated Jewish communities gathered in Croatia, a country that, like Slovenia, is part of the former Yugoslavia. At that meeting, the organization developed a comprehensive global action plan to respond to the atrocities carried out by Hamas and to dispel false narratives that had rapidly circulated.
For the full text of the letter click here.
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