The “European Forum of Tolerance: The Council of Europe’s Civil Society Representatives” will be presided by former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski

European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Moshe Kantor announced the launch of a new European body on tolerance to be presided by Aleksander Kwasniewski, former President of Poland.

The launch of “European Forum of Tolerance: The Council of Europe’s Civil Society Representatives (CECSR)” was announced after a meeting оf the EJC’s Executive Wednesday in Brussels.

Several distinguished political leaders, scientists, artists and public activists who have been fighting against discrimination and intolerance for the past decades will also take part in the new forum, the EJC said.

In his address to the EJC Executive, Kwasniewski stressed the fact that “we are living paradoxical times when Europe is becoming more and more multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-religious. »

“In such times, tolerance needs to be at the core of the organization of today society,” he added.

“We seek to emphasize the global importance of fighting xenophobia in its most acute form, anti-Semitism”, the EJC president said.

Moshe Kantor added: “The Council of Europe’s Civil Society Representatives will call to global community and political leaders attention, the need to confront the recent escalation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Europe and all over the world”.

The first public event of the CECSR will take place on the occasion of the third “Let My People Live! International Forum,” which will be held in Brussels in November 2008 and this year will commemorate the 70 th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass” when on November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany’s Jews.

The European Jewish Congress, based in Paris, is a federation of national Jewish communities in Europe.