LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA — In an urgent letter to Slovenian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon, WJC Executive Vice President Maram Stern expressed his deep concern over her handling of rising antisemitism, especially in light of WJC's delegation to Slovenia, during which an alarming remark was made by a member of the Slovenian representation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The full text of the letter can be found below:
Dear Minister Fajon,
Together with the rest of the world, we have long admired the post-Communist Slovenian success story. While other states of the former Yugoslavia were wracked by socioeconomic problems and simmering ethnic tensions, Slovenia has become a model of European integration. For instance, less than 20 years after joining the EU and NATO, Slovenia’s GDP is on par with that of South Korea and neighboring Italy. This is an impressive achievement for a newly minted nation-state that had once been part of a country convulsed by a bloody civil war.
While Slovenia’s Jewish community today numbers fewer than 200 – it was decimated during World War II – we were delighted to witness, in recent years, the reawakening of interest in Jewish traditions, where a modest but beautiful Jewish Cultural Center, accessible to all, has opened in Ljubljana. The driving force behind this revival is Robert Waltl, an actor and theater director who is well-known in Slovenia. He is the President of the Jewish Liberal Community. Robert is both a proud Slovene and a proud Jew. These identities can exist together; in progressive countries, people can have more than one identity and thrive.
However, since October 7, Slovenia has become known for something far less celebratory: virulent antisemitism — the world’s oldest hatred. Invariably, tendentious attacks on Israel fan the flames of antisemitism. And 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. In the eyes of too many Slovenes, Israel has somehow become responsible for all the woes of the Middle East. This uncompromising and vicious attitude is reflected daily in the Slovenian media.
As a result, Slovenian Jews have received widespread opprobrium. Jew-haters have staged angry protests in front of the Jewish Cultural Center, desecrated communal property and threatened Jewish leaders. They express their hostility in the ways Jew-haters know best: by vandalizing the graves of dead Jews and making the lives of the living ones utterly intolerable. Let me be clear: while most Jews have strong ties to Israel, they are certainly not responsible for its actions, no more than other Slovenians around the world are accountable for the actions of the Slovenian government.
Against this backdrop, a World Jewish Congress (WJC) delegation traveled to Ljubljana to liaise with senior government officials and express our serious concerns. Much to our surprise, hardly anyone from the government agreed to meet with the delegation. However, they did manage to arrange an encounter with the members of the Slovenian representation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). In an exchange that none of those present will ever forget, the delegation's deputy head, Amb. Blanka Jamnišek demanded to know what the WJC had done to “promote a ceasefire and to stop the killing of the children and the famine in Gaza (sic).” Her remarks were deeply disturbing, especially because Slovenia is a signatory to the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, according to which “[h]olding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” is antisemitic. Consequently, our delegation decided to leave the meeting.
Other members of the Slovenian IHRA delegation were also shocked by Amb. Jamnišek’s outburst, and later reached out to us to apologize and emphasize that they would be interested in entering into a constructive dialogue. Of course, we reacted positively to this gesture. Still, the WJC delegation left Ljubljana with mixed emotions, convinced that more needed to be done in support of the small Jewish community of Slovenia.
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 determine and administer the cure. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, once observed: “Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime. The hated cannot cure the hate. It would be the greatest mistake for Jews to believe that they can fight it alone. The only people who can successfully combat antisemitism are those active in the cultures that harbor it.”
Thank you in advance for your kind consideration.
Very sincerely,
Maram Stern
WJC Executive Vice President
