Wiesenthal Center Commends US State Department for Convening High-Level Roundtable on Global Anti-Semitism Crisis

August 3, 2014

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, along with senior Jewish leaders from the U.S. and Europe, participated in an a roundtable discussion convened by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Tom Malinowski and U.S. Special Envoy on Anti-Semitism, Ira Forman, at the State Department to discuss the unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism threatening Jewish communities.

“If the Jewish world was to adopt the Homeland Security color coded threat levels, without question Europe’s Jews is under the Red alert,” Rabbi Hier said. He commended Secretary Kerry, Assistant Secretary Malinowski, and Special Envoy Forman for the meeting, adding, “Yesterday’s meeting sends an important message of solidarity with European Jewry.”

“We hope that the EU will take similar steps in monitoring and combating on a daily basis the scourge of anti-Semitism and that individual European governments will not only do more to protect its Jewish citizens but to demand local Muslim leaders to publicly rebuke the growing wave of Jew hatred emanating in many cases from religious leaders in their communities,” Rabbi Hier concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino). 

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter,  or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.