Press Releases
B’nai B’rith International, in collaboration with UNESCO, the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, World Jewish Congress and the Latin American Jewish Congress, hosted a virtual capacity-building workshop in Spanish on April 9, “Facing online antisemitism in Latin America: How to deal with online hate speech and Holocaust denial and distortion.”
The session convened relevant civil society and government actors to tackle an epidemic of online hate targeting Jews. Prominent figures participated, including Fernando Lottenberg, Organization of American States (OAS) commissioner to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. B’nai B’rith United Nations Affairs Chair Millie Magid introduced keynote speaker Ambassador Federico Villegas, permanent representative of Argentina to the International Organizations in Geneva and co-author of the 2022 annual report on online anti-Semitism by the Web Observatory.
In his remarks, Villegas said, “One can neither speak nor defend human rights without fighting against anti-Semitism; it’s as simple as that.”
Lottenberg added, “It is imperative that as societies, we commit ourselves to combating anti-Semitism in all its forms. Education, indeed, remains our best weapon.”
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue and B’nai B’rith, in partnership with UNESCO, published a civil society toolkit in 2022 to amplify and consolidate the voice of Jewish organizations and allies in the face of growing anti-Jewish bigotry online. A prior joint session focused on online anti-Semitism within a North American context.
Previewed during the virtual program, the toolkit will soon be available in Spanish as well.