The Annual General Assembly of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress was held online on Tuesday, 9 April. The Assembly was attended by EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, EAJC Board Chairman Aaron G. Frenkel, EAJC First Vice-President Boris Lozhkin, EAJC Vice-Presidents David Yakobashvili, Moshe Shvets and Victor Naishuller, EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, as well as leaders of Jewish communities and Congress member organisations.

The Assembly reviewed the 2022-23 EAJC Report and adopted 4 resolutions: On the barbaric attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, On the right of the State of Israel to defend its borders and ensure long-term security, On the inadmissibility of anti-Zionism and other forms of anti-Semitism, On the importance of interfaith dialogue.

Welcoming words of support were delivered by EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili and EAJC Board Chairman Aharon G. Frenkel, assuring the participants that despite the most difficult period for the State of Israel and for Jews around the world, our people have the strength and wisdom to overcome all challenges.

EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yakov also highlighted the complexity of the period and briefly presented what has been done by the Congress leadership since the war began on October 7:

“Unfortunately, as in all our previous Assemblies, we have to emphasize again that we are still meeting in a very challenging time and a truly transformational period. First we experienced a pandemic, then this was followed by a period of not even one, but several heavy wars. Obviously for the past six months, the focus of our attention, as well as that of Jews around the world, has been on the Jewish state, the heavy war here and its consequences.

From the very first day, the EAJC and its leaders have been actively involved in assistance on virtually all fronts. The EAJC has assisted key non-profit organizations in Israel in the areas of health care and assistance to bereaved families, as well as numerous volunteer projects throughout the country launched since the beginning of the war to provide food, hygiene products, drinking water and other items to those in need.

We pay special attention to diplomatic work. Since the outbreak of the war, we have been in active communication with leaders in our region about what is happening in Israel.

It has also become a challenge to bring verified and accurate information to people around the world, including in the Russian-speaking community. It is our common cause and task to appear on all possible platforms, to convey Israel’s position and to fight against the tonnes of lies, distorted facts and manipulations directed against our country.”

During the Assembly a music and video compilation, “A Day of Sorrow and Heroism,” produced by the Congress for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was presented.

The two-time Oscar winner for Best International Film and Best Sound was the British film ‘Area of Interest’, about the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The film’s director and screenwriter, Jonathan Glazer, made a statement at the awards ceremony regarding the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. He claimed that there is a moral equivalence between the Nazi regime, which sought to exterminate the Jews, and the people of Israel, who have for years resisted the urge to destroy it: “Our film shows what dehumanization leads to,” he noted. – “It has shaped our entire past and present. The victims of 7 October in Israel or the victims of the ongoing war in Gaza are all a consequence of dehumanization.” 

Glazer used the Oscar ceremony to equate Hamas’ shocking brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel’s required self-defensive actions in the face of the Hamas ideology’s cruelty.

In the struggle against the humanistic ideals promoted by the followers of all Abrahamic religions, radical Islamists are ready to kill, burn, rape, and behead, as they did to the German-Israeli young woman Shani Luk. The photo of her lying unconscious in the back of a Hamas pickup truck that was taking her to Gaza spread around the world as a symbol of both horror and desperate hope that maybe she was still alive at the time. For some time, Shani’s relatives and acquaintances in Germany and Israel kept this hope and prayed, but then the girl’s skull was found and identified. What an incomprehensible barbarity it is that drove someone to cut her head off.

Moreover, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, said on 4 March in a report issued following a 17-day visit to Israel that the team of experts she led had found “clear and convincing” information on the rape and sexual torture suffered by hostages taken during the 7 October terrorist attack on Israel.

Victims of radical Islamist brutality emphasize the ruthlessness and immorality of terror, which Glazer attempts to justify with his statements.

In response to Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech, more than 450 Jewish Hollywood professionals signed an open letter saying, “…Every civilian death in the Gaza Strip is tragic. Israel is not attacking civilians. It is acting against Hamas. The moment Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders, the heartbreaking war that began after the Hamas attacks of 7 October will end. Using words such as “occupation” to describe the Jewish people defending their ancient homeland and a recognized state is just a history distortion. Such statements lend authenticity to the current blood libel that fuels the growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, including in the United States and Hollywood. The current climate of rising anti-Semitism only underscores once again the need for a Jewish state of Israel – a place that will always welcome us. Which is what no state did during the Holocaust, depicted in Mr Glazer’s film.”

Len Blavatnik, who financed the film and was on stage at the award ceremony, distanced himself from Glazer’s message. His spokesman told the famous American film magazine Variety: “His (Blavtnik’s) longstanding support for Israel is unwavering.”

President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, M.Mirilashvili, noted: “The talented film director at the ceremony in Hollywood insulted the memory of those who died during the Holocaust and on 7 October in Israel. Glazer’s words downplay the Shoah and justify crimes of the most heinous kind and thus give new strength to the supporters of terror. Outside of any connection with political views, Glazer’s speech, an example of self-loathing, is worthy of condemnation, which has been done by many prominent figures in the world film industry.

Israel has become the collective image of the Jewry. The Israelis, descendants of the Biblical Jews, eternal wanderers of history, victims of pogroms and blood libels, who for hundreds of years did not have their statehood but who created their state on the land of their ancestors, are once again on the front line of the struggle for human values, the foundations of Western civilization, against barbarism and the ideology of death. We will fulfill our mission, no matter what it takes, as we always persistently did”.

President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), Dr Michael Mirilashvili, participated in the German-Israeli summit “Joint Perspectives” held in Berlin on 14 February.

The conference was organized by the Israeli Jerusalem Post and Germany’s Die Welt.

During the conference politicians, diplomats, businessmen and public figures from Israel and Germany discussed the prospects for cooperation between the two states against the backdrop of Israel’s war against the Hamas terrorist organization.

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to welcome the organizers and participants of this significant conference.

It is symbolic that this time, the conference takes place in Germany. This land has produced some of the world’s greatest philosophers, writers, scientists, musicians, and scholars of Jewish origin. Jewish life on German soil has known different periods of highs and lows, from medieval isolation and persecution, through flourishing times of emancipation, to the terrible years of Nazism, which became a catastrophe for our people.

But German society has learned essential lessons from those terrible years. Eventually, a renewed and democratic Germany became a true friend of Israel. It has always assisted the Jewish state in times of need and continues to do so today, for which we are sincerely grateful.

Today, the German authorities take Jewish security very seriously and fight uncompromisingly any manifestations of anti-Semitism. No wonder Jewish life in Germany only keeps evolving these days. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress maintains working relationships with revived Jewish communities and organizations in Germany, consisting to a large extent of people from the former Soviet Union. More recently, we have launched a series of publications in cooperation with one of Germany’s most prestigious academic publishers – De Gruyter.

Still, not everyone has learned one of the major lessons of the Second World War. Many haven’t realized what fundamentalist theories and hate-filled ideologies can lead to. Only a few can fully recognize that such ideologies erode the very foundations of the society in which they thrive. Tragically, on October 7th, we once again witnessed what inhumane brutality people obsessed with their ideology are capable of.

More than that, the events of the horrifying terrorist attack on the Israeli population have also raised a wave of blatant anti-Semitism around the world. The scale of this age-old chronic disease – hatred of Jews, which is taking on ever new forms – has once again managed to surprise us.

Apparently, all the hard work we are doing, including with our partners at the World Jewish Congress under the leadership of my friend Ambassador Ronald Lauder, is not enough. But we must not put our hands down. Education, proactive diplomacy, and peaceful dialogue keep us dreaming that maybe one day, we will speak of anti-Semitism in the past tense.

Interfaith dialogue is a prime example of this. It may have once seemed that religions would always be at feud. But from long centuries of religious wars and persecutions, we have come to mutual recognition and religious tolerance in a relatively short time.

In this regard, I would like to emphasize that we do not see the war with Hamas as a confrontation with Islam as a whole. Hamas terrorists, like other radical Islamists, may claim to be true representatives of Muslims. Still, we know that Islam, like other Abrahamic religions, is, in fact, based on the ideals of peace, cooperation, and respect for others.

One doesn’t need to look far for examples.

Many Muslim Arabs, citizens of the State of Israel, participate in all spheres of public life and hold many senior positions. Our brothers and fellow citizens – Druze and Bedouin – fight terror alongside Jews, serving in the Israeli army and police.

The Abrahamic Accords have opened the door to unprecedented cooperation between Israel and the Gulf countries. The companies I manage are taking part in this process. Together with our partners in the United Arab Emirates, we are addressing the water scarcity and food security challenges in our region.

We always believed that technology and care for human life, growth, and well-being would bring a new reality to the Middle East.

One of the companies I run, Watergen, produces devices that make clean drinking water from moisture in the air. Before the war, several such devices were installed in the Gaza Strip, where people were suffering from a shortage of clean drinking water. Watergen was the only company to install dozens of its devices in Gaza in cooperation with the Israel Defence Forces and local partners. They were connected to solar panels and operated in hospitals.

The reality has changed since then. But the brutal war unleashed by Hamas terrorists won’t mislead us or harden our hearts. I am convinced that if society eliminates its radical ideology, opposes lies and propaganda, admits mistakes, and chooses to cherish every human life, everything can change in less than a generation. And if anyone doubts this, just look around. Germany has already made this way, and today, it serves as a great example that even on the rubble of raging hatred, it’s always possible to grow a truly blossoming garden.

We will continue to fulfill our essential mission in the world – to be ‘light to the nations’ and, together with those who believe in peaceful coexistence, we will build a more confident, sustainable, and peaceful future for us and the entire region.

And it is crucial to talk about this kind of future now. Therefore, I again thank the conference organizers, welcome all its participants, and wish you all fruitful work.

Thank you for your attention.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) presents the music and video composition “Day of Sorrow and Heroism”. The project is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War and the people who died at the hands of Hamas terrorists in a war that began on 7 October 2023 with a treacherous attack by terrorists from the Gaza Strip on populated areas in southern Israel.

The idea for the musical composition belongs to violinist and composer Alexander Povolotsky, who has worked with the Bolshoi Theatre, the USSR State Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1990 Alexander has lived in Israel and is currently Principal of the ensemble of soloists of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra ‘Tel Aviv Virtuosi’.

The scriptwriter and director of the video is Maxim Kolyshev, a finalist at Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious international festival of commercials. He repatriated to Israel in 2023.

Leaders of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress condemn South Africa’s false and baseless allegations in a lawsuit against Israel in the UN International Court of Justice.

On 29 December, South Africa filed a lawsuit accusing Israel of intending and actually committing genocide in the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The arguments presented by the prosecution in court are nothing more than a superficial, one-sided, misleading and politically motivated slur against the Jewish State.

As the Israel Defence Team correctly states, military conflicts are always, unfortunately, accompanied by casualties, destruction and humanitarian crises. To position Israel’s actions in defence of its citizens as genocide is a dilution of the essence and nothing more than a slogan based on no laws of international humanitarian law. The prosecution hardly mentions the barbaric attack by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, which, according to all norms of international law, should be interpreted as a declaration of war, and therefore justifies and gives Israel every right to engage in hostilities to protect civilians.

The international laws of war regulate the balance between humanitarian considerations and military necessity, calling on the parties to minimize humanitarian harm to the extent possible, while allowing military advantage to be gained and objectives to be achieved. The prosecution completely ignores the Israeli army’s world-unprecedented efforts to protect civilians, often to the detriment of military interests, to provide humanitarian assistance and to legally assess military action. The evidence for all of this has been exhaustively presented by the Israeli defence. The inevitable dire consequences of any military conflict, however tragic they may be, often do not even amount to a violation of the laws of warfare, let alone such heavy charges as genocide.

Moreover, the charge completely ignores the methods of warfare of Hamas terrorists, which in turn violate virtually all laws of international humanitarian law, as also evidenced by the defence.

The portrayal of statements by Israeli politicians as genocidal intentions is nothing more than a misleading selection of quotations, often taken out of context and interpreted in an exaggerated manner. Moreover, the prosecution has provided no evidence that individual statements in any way shape policy and are expressed on the battlefield. Completely ignored are the numerous statements by members of the narrow war cabinet and the highest levels of the war leadership actually directing military operations about the clear objectives of the war, the distinction between enemy forces and civilians, and Israel’s full adherence to the laws of international humanitarian law.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the statements of the prosecution are misleading, backed by an extremely weak evidentiary basis, one-sided and politically motivated, and therefore not worthy to be presented before an international court.

The EAJC leaders condemn the cynical use and dilution of the important term of genocide, the definition of which in international law was largely shaped by the terrible events of the Holocaust, and call on the court to unequivocally dismiss the lawsuit and halt this shameful process, preserving the court’s reputation as a respected body of justice.

EAJC leaders also express their deep appreciation to the Israeli legal team for their responsible approach, which left no stone unturned on South Africa’s false and baseless allegations.