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Katharina von Schnurbein Honored in Paris Last Night

B’nai B’rith Europe President Serge Dahan honored Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s Coordinator on Combating Anti-Semitism, and French Interior Ministry official Gilles Clavreul with the 2018 B’nai B’rith Human Rights Prize at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris yesterday. The commemoration was hosted by B’nai B’rith Europe and B’nai B’rith France. B’nai B’rith International sent a letter congratulating von Schnurbein on this prestigious honor.
 
“Fighting anti-Semitism is not a responsibility of the Jewish community; it’s a responsibility for society at large. And I think it’s also for that reason it concerns us all and therefore we must stand up against it together,” von Schnurbein said at the ceremony.
 
Von Schnurbein has implemented a code of conduct with social media companies, promotes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism and meets with government officials and other dignitaries to combat anti-Semitism across the world.
 
At the ceremony Dahan spoke of recent anti-Semitic events that have traumatized women, men and children and made them question the future of European Jewry. He noted that it is our collective responsibility to remember these events to ensure that future generations learn about the atrocities that the Jewish people have faced.
 
Alan Knoll, whose mother, Mireille Knoll, a Holocaust survivor who was murdered last month in Paris, was present at the event. Von Schnurbein met with Knoll before the ceremony and gave him a small stone to be placed on his mother’s grave.
 
During her speech von Schnurbein said that “when anti-Semitism is on the rise, it’s a sign that something bigger is going on in society.”
 
She further stated: “You must have the courage to condemn anti-Semitic expressions, even when they are hiding behind anti-Zionism.”