European Jewish Congress launches tolerance forum

       

The president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), Moshe Kantor, has announced the launch of a new European body on tolerance to be headed by former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski. The launch of 'European Forum of Tolerance: The Council of Europe's Civil Society Representatives (CECSR)' was announced after a meeting of the EJC Executive in Brussels. Several political leaders, scientists, artists and public activists who have been fighting against discrimination and intolerance for the past decades, are to take part in the new forum, the EJC announced.

In his address to the EJC Executive, Kwasniewski said: "We are living paradoxical times when Europe is becoming more and more multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-religious. In such times, tolerance needs to be at the core of the organization of today society."

"We seek to emphasize the global importance of fighting xenophobia in its most acute form, anti-Semitism", Moshe Kantor said, adding: "The Council of Europe’s Civil Society Representatives will call on global community and political leaders to confront the recent escalation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Europe and all over the world".

The first public event of the CECSR will take place on the occasion of the third 'Let My People Live' international Forum, which will be held in Brussels in November 2008 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of 'Kristallnacht', when on 09 November 1938 the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews.