Combating antisemitism

19 May 2022 - In order to raise awareness and facilitate communication between law enforcement agencies and the Jewish communities in Berlin to improve the response to antisemitic hate crimes and address the communities’ security needs, OSCE-ODIHR organised a conference in Berlin, attended by Wester Meijdam, Policy Officer in the office of the European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

31 May 2022 - As part of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder Fellowship Diplomacy Summit, Pascale Falek, Policy Officer, presented the EU Antisemitism Strategy and held exchange of views on various topics of interest for young Jews across the world, including fighting antisemitism online, ensuring Holocaust education, EU-Israel relation and preventing and fighting all forms of antisemitic manifestations globally. The 40 young activists were from the United States, Europe, South Africa, Canada and South America.

30 May 2022 - For her outstanding example of civic involvement for a tolerant Europe and continuous solidarity with the Jewish community, the Conference of European Rabbis bestowed their prestigious Rabbi Moshe Rosen Prize upon Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

18 - 19 May 2022 - Given the rise of antisemitic incidents, Austria invited to the 'European Conference on Antisemitism' Member States to unite their forces to not only denounce the scourge of antisemitism, but also to aim at developing a standardized methodology for recording of antisemitic incidents. This is one of the actions featured in the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

11 May 2022 - As Chairperson of the jury, Ms. von Schnurbein presented the main prize of the newly established Austrian Simon Wiesenthal Prize (15.000 Euro) to four contemporary witnesses: Lily Ebert, Zwi Nigal, Karl Pfeifer and Liliana Segre, to honour their life's work. All of them have engaged with young people in sharing their testimony, and contributed in an extraordinary way to education and remembrance of the Shoah.

On 27 June 2022 an international symposium addressing conspiracy theories through education is taking place in Brussels. The event is organised by UNESCO in cooperation with the European Commission, the European Jewish Congress, Alfred Landecker Foundation and the University of Cambridge. The event can be followed live on the Facebook and Youtube page of UNESCO.

A guide on 'Online Antisemitism: A Toolkit for Civil Society' was published by B’nai B’rith International and Institute for Strategic Dialogue in partnership with UNESCO, with the aim to build capacity among civil society to tackle the threat of online antisemitism. The guide provides an overview of the online antisemitism threat landscape, a summary of existing policy responses on international and national levels across a range of European contexts, and a broad set of recommendations for civil society engagement with governments, platforms and wider communities to address this challenge

The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism invites individuals and groups from civil society to submit an entry for the Simon Wiesenthal Prize 2022. Candidates’ work and activities must focus on and be characterised by outstanding civic engagement to combat antisemitism and/or promote Holocaust education.

27 April 2022 - On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli took part in the commemoration event organised by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and Zikaron BaSalon.

3 May 2022 - As part of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, the Canadian Taskforce to Combat Online Antisemitism held a Human Rights Talks with Katharina von Schnurbein. In the podcast, the Coordinator discussed about current trends in online and offline antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion, and looked into how best to tackle this at European and global level.

23 April 2022 - The Commission welcomes the swift political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the proposal on the Digital Services Act (DSA), proposed by the Commission in December 2020.

28 March 2022 - Katharina von Schnurbein met with Marek Siwiec, CEO of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC), and Ruslan Kavatsiuk, Deputy CEO, to discuss the impact of the Russian military agression on Ukraine on Ukrainian Jews, Ukrainian Jewish heritage and the work of BYHMC.

31 March 2022 - The European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life joined a panel discussion of special, Lord John Mann (United Kingdom), Dr. Felix Klein (Germany) and US Deputy Special envoy Aaron Keyak at the hybrid Jerusalem Post Conference gathering about 450 people at the Tottenham Stadium premises.

The European Commission organises an online info session on the Call for proposals for actions on the protection of public spaces (including places of worship, CBRN-E, unmanned aircraft systems) (ISF-2022-TF1-AG-PROTECT).

In its conclusions of 24-25 March, the European Council called on Member States to intensify their efforts in a continued spirit of unity and solidarity, and it invited the Commission to take the necessary initiatives to facilitate such efforts.

On 29 and 30 March the RAN Communication and Narratives (C&N) Working Group will hold an online meeting on ‘Antisemitism as a part of almost all extremist ideologies and narratives’.

On 19 March, Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President for Promoting Our European Way of Life, joint the President of Greece and the Jewish community in a silent march commemorating the murder of the Jews of Thessaloniki.

21 March 2022 - In a workshop on 'Combating the mainstreaming of radical discourse among young people' organised by the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), Katharina von Schnurbein, Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, addressed the dangerous rise of antisemitic discourse online and offline and the need to take concrete actions to raise awareness and educate about and safeguard the facts in order to prevent and counter the scourge of antisemitism.

14 March 2022 - In a joint hearing organised by the Council's Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination with the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance, Katharina von Schnurbein presented the EU Antisemitism Strategy and recommendations ahead of the report that is being prepared on Combating antisemitism in Europe for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

16 March 2022 - In an online panel discussion organised by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission's Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, together with Edwin Shuker, Vice President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, addressed the importance of cultural heritage recovery to combat antisemitism and terrorism.