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Today (27 January), the European Parliament will mark International Holocaust Commemoration Day with a virtual ceremony. Seventy-six years after the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp was liberated on 27 January 1945.
The President of the European Parliament David Sassoli has invited the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt and from Gyula Sárközi, dancer, choreographer and representative of the Roma community to speak. EU Reporter spoke with Rabbi Goldschmidt.
Rabbi Goldschmidt said: “Today we have a community of about 1.6 million Jews left in Europe. Before the Holocaust, we had 9.5 million Jews here. So 6 million were killed, and many decided afterwards to emigrate to safer shores. I see it as my duty as the president of the conference of Ukrainian rabbis to make sure that there is a Jewish future.”
“I think that the European Union is doing a lot, especially lately tackling anti-semitism which is spreading through social media and via social media, calling the tech giants to the table and telling them that they have to monitor and be responsible for the content on their platforms.
“However, anti-semitism is not the only issue our community is dealing with, we’re also dealing with infringement of religious freedoms. In some of the European countries, that’s a trend which is becoming more prevalent lately, because of the populism, which is traveling through this continent. And we would like to see more action from the European Union in this respect.”
The rabbi is concerned specifically with moves in certain EU states to ban ritual slaughter, necessary in kosher food production, “They always declare that Europe without Jews is not Europe, Belgium, without Jews is not Belgium. Okay? If you want to choose to stay in your country, in your region, you have to give them freedom of faith, to tell them, you can stay here, but we’re going to tell you how to conduct your religion. That’s not freedom of faith.”
The commemoration includes a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the Holocaust and the prayer El Maleh Rahamim, recited by Israel Muller, Chief Cantor of the Great Synagogue of Europe in Brussels, as well as a performance of traditional Yiddish songs by Gilles Sadowsky (clarinet) and Hanna Bardos (voice).
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