Toggle navigation menu.
OSCE / Credit: Curtis Budden

Persistent Anti-Semitism in OSCE Region Threatens Security and Stability, Says U.S. Helsinki Commission

WASHINGTON—Ten years after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) adopted the Berlin Declaration on Anti-Semitism, which outlined concrete measures to fight anti-Semitism in the OSCE region, leaders from the United States joined their counterparts from other OSCE participating States at an anniversary conference to discuss challenges posed by contemporary anti-Semitism.

High-level government representatives and political leaders at last week’s event in Berlin highlighted their concerns about persistent anti-Semitism in the OSCE region, noting that it poses an ongoing threat to security and stability in the area. Participating States were encouraged to intensify efforts to counter anti-Semitic acts and hate crimes.

“Ten years ago, the United States, Canada, and countries from across Europe held a critical meeting in Berlin to fight a surge in anti-Semitism,” said U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission.  “I wish I could say this were purely a commemorative meeting to acknowledge what was achieved in the last 10 years, but facts dictate this must be a working meeting focused on resurgent anti-Semitism. First and foremost, this means addressing the rise in violent attacks like those we have witnessed in Brussels and Toulouse… I am also concerned about overly restrictive laws or regulations that may make it more difficult for Jews and Muslims to practice their faiths, including those relating to circumcision, ritual slaughter, and religious attire. We must break this cycle so that another decade is not lost to hate and instability.”

Representative Chris Smith (NJ-04), Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, was Chairman of the Commission at the time of the original Berlin meeting in 2004 and spearheaded the movement that led to the original Conference, where the OSCE became the first intergovernmental organization to adopt such meaningful commitments against anti-Semitism.

“Over the past 10 years we’ve made progress in getting the OSCE and its member states to recognize their responsibility to fight the terrible social evil of anti-Semitism,” said Co-Chairman Smith, who met with European officials and activists on the topic of increasing anti-Semitism in Europe in advance of the conference. “Now we’re going to hold their feet to the fire on their commitments.”

Media contact

Category
Country
Issue
Date
Filter Topics Open Close
Articles

Helsinki Commission Advances Human Rights, Demands f...

Oct 19, 2023

By Shannon Simrell, Senior Policy Advisor Between October 2-13, 11 Helsinki Commission staff joined approximately 1,400 representatives of OSCE participating States (pS) and civil society representatives in Warsaw, Poland in an annual review of the human rights records of OSCE States. U.S. leadership highlighted demands for accountability from Russia and Belarus for their human rights […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

United States Demonstrates Global Leadership on Ukra...

Jul 14, 2023

The Helsinki Commission’s four senior leaders helmed the United States’ bicameral, bipartisan delegation to the 30th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly last week in Vancouver, Canada. Co-Chairman Senator Ben Cardin (MD), serving as Head of Delegation, was joined by Chairman Joe Wilson (SC-02) as Deputy Head of Delegation as well as Ranking Members […]

screen-reader-text
Helsinki_Default
Hearings

The Alarming Rise in Antisemitism and Its Threat to ...

Dec 13, 2022

In response to a rise in antisemitism in the United States and abroad, the Helsinki Commission held a hearing on December 13, 2022, featuring experts on preventing and combatting it. Witnesses testified about current development and how best to respond, as well as reinforced the important role of multilateral cooperation. In an increasingly global world […]

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

CO-CHAIRMAN COHEN APPOINTED AS OSCE PARLIAMENTARY AS...

Jul 21, 2022

WASHINGTON—Margareta Cederfelt, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), has appointed Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) as the first-ever OSCE PA Special Representative on Political Prisoners. “I welcome the chance to serve as the voice of political prisoners across the OSCE region,” said Co-Chairman Cohen. “Every day, we witness more political arrests of […]

screen-reader-text
Digests

Helsinki Commission Digital Digest May 2022

Jun 01, 2022

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

Co-Chairman Cohen Condemns Lavrov’s Antisemitic Comm...

May 03, 2022

WASHINGTON—In response to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent antisemitic comments regarding Ukraine’s president and the people of Ukraine more generally, Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement: “In a despicable attempt to justify Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, including well-documented indiscriminate murders of civilians, including children; torture; and rape of […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Following in the Footsteps of Tsar Nicholas II

Apr 27, 2022

As Vladimir Putin attempts to turn back the clock to the Russian Empire of the pre-Soviet era, he also adopts a tool of political manipulation used in Imperial Russia—fostering violent extremist organizations as a means to a political end. Tsar Nicholas II used this technique with terrorist organizations like the Union of the Russian People […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Debunking “Denazification”

Apr 21, 2022

By Worth Talley, Max Kampelman Fellow​ On February 24, 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine—in reality, a Russian invasion designed to subjugate the democratic, peaceful people of Ukraine. When the news broke, Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen immediately decried the statement. “Like Mr. Zelensky, I […]

screen-reader-text
In the News

Lawmakers strike bipartisan note to condemn Putin, c...

Feb 24, 2022

In a show of unity, Republican and Democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned Russia’s military attack against Ukraine and vowed to inflict economic pain on President Vladimir Putin by imposing a torrent of punishing new sanctions. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she wants Russia cut off from the SWIFT international banking system. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called on international law enforcement […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Chairman Cardin, OSCE participating States Commit to...

Feb 15, 2022

By Ryn Hintz, Paulina Kanburiyan, and Worth Talley, Max Kampelman Fellows, and Shannon Simrell, Representative of the Helsinki Commission to the U.S. Mission to the OSCE On February 7 – 8, 2022, the OSCE’s Polish Chair-in-Office organized a high-level conference in Warsaw on Combating Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region with the support of OSCE’s Office […]

screen-reader-text
helsinki commission logo 368x331
Digests

Helsinki Commission Digital Digest January 2022

Jan 31, 2022

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Cardin a...

Jan 27, 2022

WASHINGTON—On the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Poland, which is designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) and Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement on the recent spate of antisemitic activity across the United States: “We are extremely alarmed by […]

screen-reader-text