the challenges and opportunities of being Jewish in the enlarged European Union, amid concern about anti Semitism on the continent.
The 3rd General Assembly of European Jewry, which was due to end Sunday, May 23, comes as delegates report that despite the rising tide of sectarian hate crimes, the new Europe is experiencing a revival of Jewish life and culture, not seen in more than a century.
Israel’s song "Hallelujah" about eternal peace that won in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979 set the tone for what is being described as the largest ever meeting of European Jewish officials.
A group of singing Children on the stage of a Budapest conference hall were also to symbolize the hope of a better future for European Jews, following the admittance of 10 mainly former Communist countries to the E-U on May 1.
HUNGARIAN HOLOCAUST
Hungary is hosting the conference at a time when it also commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Holocaust when about 600-thousand Hungarian Jews died. With up to 100-thousand Hungarian Jews still living here, Hungary has now one of the largest Jewish communities in former Soviet satellite states.
Delegates hope Hungarian and other Eastern European Jews contribute to what they describe as Europe’s largest reawakening of Jewish life and culture in over a century, said Jonathan Joseph, who is president elect of the European Council of Jewish Communities, which co-organized the four-day meeting.
"The key issues for us are that the countries that have now joined the E-U were the countries that were the cradle of the major populations of Jews up to the Second World War," he told BosNewsLife. "If you look to countries like Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and so on, who joined right now, they contained 50 percent of the World’s Jewish population. And it is the joining of those countries with their surviving Jewish communities that is the exciting thing."
JEWISH CULTURE
Not everyone is pleased with the spread of Jewish culture.
Metal detectors and other security measures around the conference are reminders that only last month Hungarian police discovered an anti Jewish bomb plot just before the inauguration by Israeli President Moshe Katsav of the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center.
And elsewhere in Europe the EU’s racism watchdog has reported a rise of anti Semitic activities especially in Western European countries such as Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Britain.
The attacks include the spraying of swastikas and Nazi graffiti at Jewish cemeteries and Nazi demonstrations.
RUSSIAN HOPE
But at least one Russian official of Jewish organizations attending the conference, Eugenia Lvova from St. Petersburg, has noticed that in her country younger Jews refuse to be intimidated by anti-Semitic attacks.
"People of my generation, I am 46 and older who really suffered of anti Semitism who know what it means not to be able to enter the university to get good job and so on, are much more afraid of anti Semitism than the younger generation of Jewish kids who participate in the different Jewish communities programs," she argued. "When there are some anti Semitic demonstrations or publications in the newspapers older people are afraid. But younger people say: Russia is our country? Why should we be afraid of these crazy people?"
She said she hopes such an attitude will ensure that Jews think twice before following the example of the nearly one million who Israeli officials say migrated to Israel from the former Soviet republics following the collapse of Communism.
The one thousand Jewish leaders attending the conference were expected to adopt a collective strategy to encourage Jewish people not to abandon their heritage and culture.
