More than 100 Jewish leaders from across Europe voted to give the European Jewish Association (EJA) a mandate to negotiate a protected minority status for European Jews on their behalf with national governments and the EU.
The mandate was granted following a plenary session vote at the EJA’s Annual Conference in Brussels, held under the theme “Global Intifada: Jewish Communities on the Frontlines.” Attendees included European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White, and US Special Envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.
The EJA’s mandate, as granted by Jewish leaders, will establish a framework for what constitutes a permanent Special Protected Minority Status.
This status would mean Jewish life and practice would no longer be dependent on the goodwill of whichever government is in power at any given period.
Special Protected Minority Status for European Jewry is built on three central pillars: Recognition of Jews as a National Minority, Protection of Rights Essential to Jewish Life, and Practical Mechanisms for Protection and Promotion.
The first pillar asks that Jews be formally recognized as a National Minority, either explicitly listed or protected under general law as an ethnic or racial group, as well as a religious one. This recognizes that Jews are more than just a minority within a country, but that they have longstanding ties and their own distinct culture and identity that must be preserved.
The second pillar has several subsections, but focuses on tackling antisemitism in criminal and civil law, and protecting religious practices that are essential to Jewish identity, such as circumcision, kosher slaughter, marriage, and burial rites. This is particularly relevant in places like Belgium, where there is increasing concern from the Jewish community about a potential ban on circumcision.
The third pillar aims to establish collaboration between public authorities and Jewish communities across policing, education, and public services. It also asks that funding be flexible and responsive, particularly in areas such as security, education, and cultural preservation.
EJA Chairman: Antisemitism alarm raised 'for too long'
“For too long, we have been raising the alarm, engaging governments, and working with European institutions to confront antisemitism,” said EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
“Today, Jewish leaders from across Europe gave us a clear mandate and sent a loud message across the continent: the existing government tools are not enough. When it becomes normal that Jews are attacked in the streets, that students are forced to hide their identity, and that Jewish communities are forced to live behind security barriers, it demands an urgent new set of rules, an urgent new standard.”
Margolin told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the idea came about a couple of months ago, given the number of cases across the continent of politicians trying to restrict aspects of Jewish life (such as religious circumcisions or slaughter).
“We cannot waste all our energy on always fighting different initiatives, and so, it’s very hard to build the future where, always, the ground is shaking,” he said.
Margolin stressed the importance of placing protections for the Jewish community that will persist regardless of who wins a future election.
The idea for the protected minority status is to find a legal framework that will be more effective than other individual policies, strategies for combating antisemitism, the IHRA definition, and the like. These, Margolin said, could be interpreted as goodwill, but mean “nothing on the ground.”
Right now, the EJA’s legal team is examining every country’s constitution to see which countries signed the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and then determine what needs to be done country by country. The aim, he added, is to get governments to use an existing legal framework, without needing to change the constitution, and apply it to the Jewish community.
“It doesn’t mean that any single Jew has to be marked as a protected person, and it doesn’t mean that Jews have to live in a ghetto. It simply means that the security of the Jewish institutions, the culture, the freedom of religion, and those things have to be protected.”
“As a protected minority, which is part of the society, it would mean that all schools would have to educate and teach about the minority as something important in the country. So if children learn to cherish the Jewish community and its contribution to society, I believe it would also reduce a lot of the hatred today against the Jewish people,” he concluded.