The third Executive Council meeting of the EJF was held in Kyiv on April 12, 2007.
The meeting was attended by the Fund’s Chairman, Moshe Viatcheslav Kantor, its Secretary General, Arie Zuckerman, the Executive Council and representatives of the Jewish communities of 21 countries.
Participants discussed the communities’ current and future projects, as well as the challenges they are presently facing, including growing anti-Semitism, assimilation, restitution issues, Holocaust remembrance, the struggle to provide traditional Jewish education, and new initiatives aimed at confronting contemporary challenges to European Jewry.
Meeting participants focused on the problem of education. Representatives of the Jewish communities of Luxembourg, Sweden and Cyprus stated there is a substantial shortage of Jewish professionals. Therefore, many communities are developing programs to train young Jewish leaders, such as the School of Jewish Professionals in Sweden and the Young Leadership Seminar in Europe proposed by the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). WUJS president Tamar Shchory shared her vision: “I anticipate working with the Fund in future, it will help us to enhance our activities and reinforce the future generation of Jewish people.”
Holocaust remembrance was also an important topic of discussion. In Lithuania, Moldova and the United Kingdom, Holocaust history lessons have been integrated into the official curriculum. The meeting restated the necessity of introducing Holocaust lessons into the curricula of all schools in Europe.
EJF participants view education and cultural projects as the best way to deal with assimilation. International festivals of Jewish culture, centers for Jewish art and heritage, children’s programmes, books and films – these are the kind of projects suggested by the communities to attract Jews and non-Jews to Judaism. “We should open the synagogue doors to everybody,” said Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania.
In addition to Jewish issues, the meeting addressed problems of international importance. To face the nuclear threat and prevent a “nuclear Holocaust,” the meeting voiced its support for the Conference on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, to be held by the European Jewish Fund on May 24 and 25, 2007 in Luxembourg. “We should work not only for the Jewish community but for all humankind,” said President of the Jewish Community of Goteborg Anders Carlberg while welcoming this initiative.