EJC President Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor: “Institutional anti-Semitism is more dangerous than ordinary crimes”

*PUBLISHED AS ADVERTISING *From the streets to the stands

Researchers have noted the rise in the level of anti-Semitism in European countries for more than a year. According to the British Community Security Trust (CST), in the UK alone in the first half of 2016, the number of cases of aggressive manifestations of intolerance towards Jews increased by 11% and amounted to 557 recorded facts. Interestingly, cases of direct attacks on Jews, damage to their property or vandalism are decreasing - by 13% compared to the same period last year, according to CST. However, high rates are provided by more and more public insults of Jews, including from the lips of influential political and public figures who form public opinion. This phenomenon has already been called "institutional anti-Semitism" - that is what Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor , President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), calls it. And it is gaining a frightening pace.

No unity yet

Similar trends throughout Europe and in the world as a whole are noted by researchers from the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. Russia, by the way, looks like a calm country in this list - over the past year, experts from the Kantor Center recorded only 8 cases of aggressive anti-Semitism in the Russian Federation, while in the United States this figure was 88, and in France, where the largest Jewish community in Europe is located - 72 .

Vyacheslav Kantor himself is sure that these data should seriously disturb all European authorities and lead to a joint struggle against the eradication of intolerance. However, in reality, Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor is forced to state, it is precisely from the leaders of public opinion that anti-Semitic slogans are often heard.

The power of a word

“In 2015, we really noted a decrease in the number of violent attacks on Jews and their institutions, but at the same time, institutional anti-Semitism showed a serious increase,” explains Vyacheslav Kantor. “This is expressed in attacks, insinuations and slander against the Jewish people by people in high positions.”

Viacheslav Kantor is sure that, unlike isolated attacks, the formation of a negative information field around the Jewish people has much more far-reaching consequences. First of all, according to Vyacheslav Kantor, this affects the public opinion of people, and especially the younger generation, who are just learning to perceive and evaluate the world around them.

“Wounds and injuries inflicted in an attack may heal over time, but the damage from anti-Semitism in the sphere of public opinion will be felt much longer,” says Moshe Kantor. “The new generation will simply be taught to think that the source of all troubles is the Jews and the Jewish people.”

There is only one way out of this future impasse, and Vyacheslav Kantor called for it more than once: in order to combat the wave of hatred, mutual cooperation and pooling of efforts at all levels of government and public organizations is necessary.