JPR News Release
'Voting rights in Israel for Diaspora Jews' proposal criticised as 'fundamentally retrogressive' by JPR

Recent remarks by the Russian oligarch Moshe Kantor, speaking in his capacity as President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), that all Diaspora Jews should have the right to vote in Israeli elections, are described as ‘fundamentally retrogressive’ in a Policy Briefing paper from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), the independent think tank working on policy ideas for an inclusive Europe.

 

‘It is hard to believe that anyone who cares enough about the future of European Jewry to want to serve as the political leader of its Jewish communities, as Mr Kantor obviously does, could voice remarks which are so irresponsible and potentially damaging for Jews in Europe’, says the paper, authored by JPR Executive Director Antony Lerman.

 

The paper, ‘Making More of Europe: The Perils and Prospects of European Jewish Advocacy’, has just been issued to coincide with a JPR Policy Seminar on 22 February, which will examine current organizational arrangements for European Jewish advocacy and cooperation and explore how these can be improved.

 

Lerman argues that Kantor’s remarks ‘undermine the status of Jews in Europe, by calling into question their loyalty to their countries of citizenship, and breach the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the state of Israel’.

 

The paper is also critical of other comments by Kantor: his view that antisemitism is no less dangerous now than it was on the eve of the Second World War; his support for the military option for curbing Iran’s alleged nuclear bomb aspirations; and his European Jewish Fund, membership of which is open to anyone with ‘at least one Jewish grandparent’ and $1 million—this will give the donor and his descendants membership in perpetuity. ‘It will be the European Jewish House of Lords,’ Kantor said.

 

‘Kantor’s proposals for funding and governance of European Jewish activity,’ the paper states, ‘appear to show no regard for the principles of democracy and accountability.’

 

Kantor’s remarks appear to have precipitated a split in the EJC. The French, Austrian and Portuguese Jewish communities suspended their membership in the organization following an 11 February vote in Paris extending Kantor’s presidency for 2 years beyond the planned end of his term in 2009.

 

The paper highlights the reasons why the major organizations—the EJC and the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC)—claiming to represent European Jewish interests are not seen as effective. ‘Strong backing of and involvement of the major Jewish communities’ is crucial, yet ‘support of this kind has been patchy at best. At worst it has been virtually non-existent.’

 

The vacuum has been filled by other Jewish organizations, with American ones, like the American Jewish Committee, very prominent among them. Non-European groups pursuing Jewish advocacy in Brussels and in major European capitals, the paper says, ‘may be of benefit to Europe’s Jews, but since [their advocacy is] pursued without consultation with Jews in Europe and the outcomes are never assessed in concert with Jewish organizations, we cannot know.’

 

The expanded JPR briefing will be launched as a policy paper after the 22 February seminar.

 

Speaking at the seminar will be: Professor Jerome Chanes, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University; Glyn Ford MEP, Labour Member of the European Parliament; Dr Nick Lambert, author of Jews and Europe in the Twenty-First Century: Thinking Jewish; Jean-Jacques Wahl, Director General, Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris.

To read more about the event, click here.

 

For copies of the briefing and if you wish to attend the seminar, contact: Lena Stanley-Clamp at lstanley-clamp@jpr.org.uk ; 020 7563 9427 or Agnes Erdos at AErdos@jpr.org.uk; 020 7563 9428.