B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International is disturbed to learn a statue of Adolf Hitler has been placed in the former Warsaw Ghetto, in the Polish capital, dishonoring the memory of Holocaust victims persecuted there and risking that visitors might see the Nazi dictator in a positive light.

The statue was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and shows Hitler praying on his knees. Hitler’s mission was to exterminate the Jewish people. Any representation of Hitler suggesting some form of innocence and piety on his part is an insult to all of those whose lives he destroyed.

The location of the statue is even more startling given that Hitler’s regime notoriously forced Jews to live in a closed off ghetto in the city during World War II. Tens of thousands of people died living within the ghetto, while hundreds of thousands were ultimately deported to Nazi death camps.

The statue must be removed.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith welcomes a change in the Hungarian parliament that will enable the government to punish members of parliament for abusive speech. Members of Parliament approved the amendment that could hold lawmakers accountable for hate speech. Offenders could be fined and perhaps removed from their posts.

The new measure comes after the November comments of far-right Jobbik party leader Marton Gyongyosi, suggesting that Hungarians of Jewish descent be listed and evaluated as to whether they are a national security threat. Gyongyosi emphasized assessing the threat of Jewish members of parliament and those in the government’s cabinet.  
 
At the time, B’nai B’rith leaders called Gyongyosi’s efforts anti-Semitic and unacceptable. B’nai B’rith also noted the scheme to demonize Jews was even more alarming given the history of the Holocaust in Hungary.   

During the Holocaust between 500,000 and 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International mourns the passing of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). Inouye was a Medal of Honor recipient, a nine-term U.S. senator and dear friend of Israel. In addition to serving his country during World War II and in the Senate, Inouye was a key player in advancing U.S.-Israel relations and was a sincere friend of the American Jewish community.

Inouye died on Dec. 17 at the age of 88 due to respiratory complications. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

During the past few weeks, B’nai B’rith International was actively and instrumentally involved in gathering 150 signatures from members of national parliaments and the European Parliament for a letter to the government of Hungary protesting an anti-Semitic act by a Hungarian parliamentarian.

The letter is a response to a Nov. 27 incident in which a leader of the far-right Jobbik party, Marton Gyongyosi, suggested to the Hungarian parliament that those of Jewish descent be listed and evaluated as to whether they are a national security threat. Gyongyosi emphasized assessing the threat of Jewish members of parliament and those in the government’s cabinet. His comments were made during a debate on the Israel-Gaza situation, in which he claimed the Hungarian government was continually siding with Israel.

In the letter, the signers express deep concern over growing anti-Semitism in Hungary, as well as the Jobbik party’s continued efforts to single out minority groups. Intolerance is thoroughly condemned throughout the letter, and suggestions are made to attempt to curb and prevent any further growth of this hatred.

The letter is addressed to the Hungarian president, prime minister and speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly. You can read the full text of the letter here.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

Even while we grieve and try to come to terms with the senseless Dec. 14 assault on an elementary school, we must also look ahead to ensuring such a horrific mass shooting never happens again. In the wake of the gruesome Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., where gunman Adam Lanza murdered 26 people, 20 of them children, it is well past time to demand sensible gun control measures.

B’nai B’rith calls for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, which went into effect in 1994, but was not renewed when it expired a decade later. At the time, 1,100 police chiefs and sheriffs from across the country urged the law be renewed and strengthened. Other meaningful, enforceable gun control measures are also needed.

Lanza used a .223-caliber Bushmaster assault rifle—a civilian version of the U.S. military’s M-16. The magazine-fed civilian weapon is meant for rapid firing, capable of carrying hundreds of bullets in its magazines. Lanza also had two semiautomatic handguns that he did not use.

Assault weapons enable a shooter to fire multiple rounds without stopping to reload as they automatically expel and load ammunition with each trigger-pull. There is no sane, acceptable, reasonable need in a civilian setting to fire off large rounds of ammunition.

B’nai B’rith has called for gun control reform before, most recently in July after the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. where 12 were killed and 58 wounded.

Mass shootings come to be known by a macabre shorthand: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora and now Newtown. It’s time for lawmakers to change the vocabulary. Enact and enforce gun control measures.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International sends its thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. We offer our deepest condolences in the wake of this incomprehensible violence.
 
No words can adequately convey the sadness we feel over this senseless act.

B’nai B’rith President Allan J. Jacobs, Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin and International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy Deputy Director Eric Fusfield joined other Jewish leaders at a meeting in New York convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations with leaders of the Greek-American community.

The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) and the American Hellenic Institute represented the Greek-American community.

Arye Mekel, Israel’s ambassador to Greece, spoke to the meeting by phone from Athens, Greece. The consuls general in New York, Israel and Greece, Ido Aharoni and Giorgios Iliopoulous, and the ambassador of Cyprus to the United States, Pavlos Anastasiades, also addressed the gathering.

The leaders of both communities met to discuss common issues on the Greek-American and the American-Jewish agendas. Topics covered included cooperation between Israel, Greece and Cyprus on energy development, the rise of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party, the Greek debt crisis, and domestic issues of interest to both communities.

At a session of the Organization of American States Permanent Council, B’nai B’rith warned the organization that anti-Semitism is on the rise, necessitating increased governmental focus on the problem.

At the organization’s headquarters on Dec. 8, B’nai B’rith engaged in dialogue and reflection with other organizations and member states on the workings of the Inter-American Human Rights System. B’nai B’rith also examined proposals from an ongoing report on the IAHRS and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The goal of the meeting and the overall review process is to strengthen the OAS’ promotion of democracy, human rights, security and development.

Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs, represented B’nai B’rith at the session with combating anti-Semitism at the top of his agenda. He urged the OAS to increase its focus on anti-Semitism in the Western Hemisphere, as the problem is on the rise throughout the region.  

Fusfield had three specific suggestions to deal with anti-Semitism: First, he called for the adoption of the draft Convention Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination, which has been under discussion since 2004 and includes a specific reference to anti-Semitism. He also recommended that the OAS widely circulate a comprehensive working definition of anti-Semitism among public officials, educators and journalists in order to promote awareness of contemporary manifestations of the problem.  

Additionally, Fusfield conveyed the importance of monitoring and collecting data in documenting the phenomenon and the need for public figures to condemn and stigmatize hate speech in order to elevate the public discourse around Jews and other minorities.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International praises the response of the Anti-Defamation Commission to cartoonist Michael Leunig’s extremely offensive cartoon that compares Israelis to Nazis and his defense of the cartoon the following day.

Leunig drew a political cartoon for The Age, a Melbourne, Australia, publication, in which he used his own variation of Martin Niemöller’s famous anti-Nazi poem “First they came…” to express his anti-Semitic views. The cartoon essentially equates Israel’s defense of its people against Hamas rocket fire to the Nazis’ genocide of the Jewish people. As if this weren't farcical enough, the following day he defended his drawing on the op-ed pages and attacked those who rightfully objected to his work.

The comparison of Israel’s defense policies to systematic murder of millions is truly deplorable. We applaud the ADC and Dvir Abramovich for identifying and admonishing Leunig for his work. We hope others in Australia and around the world will recognize that this kind of hate-speech should not be tolerated and must be combated.

B’nai B’rith International has released the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International condemns the outrageous statements made by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, comparing the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, which killed 85, to the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011.

The comments were made on Dec. 4 on Argentine TV. The president was quoted as saying: “I am familiar with the case, which is a very painful part of Argentina’s history. But look at how many died in the NATO bombings of Libya. If we compare these two events, we can see where the true danger lies.”

The Ecuadorian president’s comments were completely inappropriate and further showcase the threat of Iranian penetration into Latin America.  

Iran, the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror, is widely acknowledged to be behind the AMIA attack. Officials from the top levels of the Iranian government were named by an Argentine prosecutor’s report as being responsible for the bombing.

The comparison of a terrorist attack on civilians to a military campaign against a dictator is absurd and insulting to the memory of those that were killed. The bombing of the AMIA building is one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in the history of Latin America. We hope the Argentine government, and others in the region, will denounce this appalling statement.