The leaders of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress congratulate the ministers of the 37th government of Israel on their inauguration. In a greeting letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili pointed out the many difficult challenges facing the new government:

“On behalf of the leaders of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and my behalf, I congratulate you on the formation of the 37th Government of the State of Israel. We wish you stable and productive work for the benefit of Israeli society and the entire Jewish World. I am convinced that your extensive experience as Prime Minister will help our State to achieve its goals.

Today, as Israel becomes more and more powerful, the worldwide Jewish community sees Israel as a great source of inspiration and pride. An old dream of a Jewish state as the center of the Jewish world, the light for the Jewish diaspora and nations of the world – is no longer just a dream. We have all the means to realize it. And we should always be aware – the Jewish world watches us with great expectations. Therefore, a responsible and balanced policy of the government concerning the diaspora is extremely important.

The EAJC, as one of the leading organizations of the Jewish world, and other Jewish leaders in the diaspora place great hopes on the new Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Minister of Aliyah and Integration. Their fresh approach to the work of their departments can give a new impetus to the implementation of one of the most vital missions of Israel as a national home for the Jewish people. At times of global humanitarian crisis, this mission becomes even more essential.

On our part, we will continue our work on securing and developing Jewish life in the Euro-Asian region and strengthening ties between the Jewish communities and the State of Israel. To be a part of this process is a great honor for us.

We hope that the 37th Israeli government will promote values of peace, plurality, Jewish unity, social justice, national identity, and Zionism, bearing in mind the bigger picture, taking into consideration our relations with the global Jewish world and playing an active part in the life of the Diaspora.

May the Almighty give us the strength to work together for the good of Israel and build a just and better future.”

Among the participants of this conference are Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, President of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress; Aaron G. Frenkel, Chairman of the Board of the EAJC; Aharon Barak, former president of the Supreme Court of Israel; Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress; Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata; Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai; Agriculture Minister Oded Forer; MK Simcha Rothman; Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel’s Ambassador to Russia; Michael Brodsky, Israel’s Ambassador to Ukraine; Natan Sharansky, former minister and chairman of the Jewish Agency; Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, CEO of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress; Eric Fingerhut, President and Chairman of the Jewish Federations of North America; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and other distinguished guests.

The conference addressed the humanitarian crisis in Post-Soviet countries, which strongly affected local Jewish communities, and the challenges faced by the State of Israel and the organized Jewish World in this regard.

The Conference also marked the 30th Anniversary of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, which in early 90’s started as a small delegation of the Soviet Jewry to the World Jewish Congress right after the dissolution of the USSR.

More about the conference: future.test.eajc.org

A day earlier, Wiesel Square was opened in front of the Jerusalem office of the Yad Sarah charity. The solemn ceremony was attended by the mayor of the city Moshe Leon, the delegation of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), the founder and head of Yad Sara, Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky, as well as public figures, politicians, and scientists.

The initiative to name the square and to build the monument belongs to the Chairman of the Board of the EAJC, Aaron G. Frenkel. According to him, the location of Wiesel Square has a symbolic meaning: the road to Mount Herzl passes through it, “where the most devoted heroes of the Israel Defense Forces are buried, who sacrificed their lives for the common good.”

“Eli Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in preserving the memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust,” said Aaron Frenkel. – The Shoah claimed several of his closest family members. He spent terrible years in the death camps when the Nazis tried to deprive him and other prisoners in the camps of their very human form. It is symbolic that Wiesel Square will be built near the Yad Sara building, an organization that embodies the very principle of charity, supporting the weak and helping the infirm. All the thoughts of the people who are here are immersed in support and help to people. Here they are constantly thinking about how to support, help and improve the quality of life of all the inhabitants of Israel without exception.”

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the Romanian city of Sighet to a religious Jewish family. At the age of 15, in 1944, he and his family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Later, Wiesel and his father were transferred to the Buchenwald death camp. Only two of his sisters survived. Starting his literary career in Yiddish, Wiesel subsequently also published in Hebrew, French, and English. 10 years after his release from the death camp, he described his story in his memoir “Night”, which had a huge impact on world culture. Originally published in French, the book was later translated into 30 languages and published in millions of copies. Wiesel is the author of over 40 works, many of which are dedicated to the Holocaust and Jewish culture. For most of his life, Elie Wiesel worked to preserve the memory of the events of the Holocaust of European Jewry. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his commitment to the subject of the suffering of the Jewish people, the victims of Nazism.”

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress considers these assessments absolutely unacceptable. Such views, expressed in the pages of one of the most popular printed publications in Russia, can have dangerous consequences and lead to a surge in anti-Semitism. Especially given the position of the article’s author. We are convinced that a person related to the national security issues of any state has no right to express such provocative ideas. We urge the Russian authorities to pay attention to this problem.

Commenting on the publication, EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili noted: “The ideas, that the author of the article allowed himself to express, in the last century led to the most terrible crimes against the Jewish people, the consequences of which we still feel. People who hold such views should not be allowed to spread them freely in the media.”

“Attempts to distort ideas about Judaism in the public consciousness are absolutely unacceptable and have no place in the modern world. As we remember from history, it was the spread of such ideas that led to the most terrible events of the past. People spouting hateful ideas, usually are not particularly interested in historical truth. They do not think about the consequences of their words, because their main driver is cheap popularity among radical groups. Such manipulations are unacceptable, since their destructive side effect is the incitement of anti-Semitic sentiments in society,” said EAJC President Michael Mirilashvili.

On October 25, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem hosted a reception on the occasion of the Albanian Prime Minister’s Edi Ram visit to Israel. The event was organized by the Honorary President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Alexander Mashkevich. As part of a special ceremony, Alexander Mashkevich, together with EAJC President Michael Mirilashvili, presented the head of the Albanian government with an award for special merits in maintaining Israeli-Albanian relations and supporting the local Jewish community.

At the ceremony, the close historical ties between the Albanian and Jewish peoples were especially noted: during the 2nd World War, many Albanias were saving Jews, often risking their own lives. In this regard, the Jewish people and the State of Israel express their gratitude to the people of Albania.

In addition, an important episode in the partnership between the Albanian authorities and the EAJC was the joint evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan to Albania and then to Canada. Emergency assistance was provided to 40 men and women by several organizations and individuals, including EAJС Honorary President  Alexander Mashkevich and EAJC Chairman of the Board Aharon G. Frenkel.

Project name is an abbreviation. It stands for “Memory. Education. Generation. Action”.

“During the World War II and even after it, many ancient Jewish cemeteries were destroyed. The tombstones were used for various domestic purposes. For example, as a building material for houses or road. Most of these cemeteries today remain hidden under forests or fields,” says Elena Kulevnich, Executive Director of Hillel Minsk.

According to her, the descendants of Jews living in Belarus often cannot find any traces of their ancestors. “They have nowhere to bring the memorial stone. They cannot find traces of their family, although they know for sure that their family roots are in Belarus, a country once full of Jewish communities, while Yiddish was the second most common language here.”

As part of the MEGA project, Hillel volunteers and students find cemeteries underground, explore the scope of reconstruction and restoration work. The preparation process includes the necessary calculations, drawing up a program and route, finding resources and experts. Then the organizers announce the recruitment of volunteers: Jewish young leaders aged 18 to 30.

Among the achievements of the project, the organizers note several restored cemeteries across the country at once – in Dyatlovo, Shatsk, Zembin, Mir, Motol, Kopyl and Vishnevo. In Brest, according to Minsk Hillel, about 1,000 tombstones have been preserved and restored.

More information about the Hillel Minsk MEGA project can be found in the article by the head of the organization – on the Jewish Heritage Europe website.

One of the priorities of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is the preservation and restoration of the Jewish heritage of the countries of the Euro-Asian region. Throughout its history, the EAJC has supported numerous projects in this area.

The ceremony was attended by members of the Jewish community of Moldova, descendants of those killed during World War II, President of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC) Yuri Kanner, officials from Israel and Moldova, diplomats from several countries.

Speaking at the ceremony, Grigory Roitberg noted that the symbolic meaning of the memorial correlates with the well-known expression from Jewish scriptures: “Any untimely deceased person is a Torah page torn out.”

“We often treat the death toll as a statistic – 6 million people is a huge number, yet still a number. But when it comes to the death of one person, who is close to us – it is no longer a statistic, it is a tragedy. Here is a place where 6,300 of such tragedies lie. Most of them were children,” Roitberg added, “Today I really want us not to forget about it. We really need this if only for those who lie here.”

During the ceremony, EAJC Vice-President Alexandru Bilinkis pointed out that for the Jewish community of Moldova it is the fourth opened Holocaust memorial over the past two years.

“For 30 years now, preservation of the Holocaust victims memory, as well as cultural heritage and the fight against anti-Semitism have remained our main mission. Unfortunately, the tragedy of war remains a part of modernity. We do not learn to compromise, we do not learn from our own history,” he said.

The memorial to the Jews shot near the city of Soroka is a composition of twenty marble steles, symbolizing chopped tree trunks. On the first row are the names of thousands of executed Jews, whose identity has been identified to date.

As researchers of the history of the Holocaust note, many events that took place during the 2nd World War on the territory of Moldova have not yet been studied by historians, since they were hushed up for many years. From the first days of the war, the territory of the country was occupied by Romania and included in the so-called Transnistria – the territory between the rivers Dniester and Bug, in the southern part of Ukraine. Before the war, over 300,000 Jews lived there. Transnistria was established in August 1941 and lasted until the second half of March 1944. It is noted that, unlike the Germans, the Romanian genocide of the Jewish population was unsystematic and chaotic.

All decisions to exterminate the Jewish population were left to the discretion of the local leaders, who were not accountable. In the winter of 1941-1942 alone, about 250,000 Jews were killed on the territory of Transnistria. In total, more than 300 thousand Jews died in concentration camps during the years of the Romanian occupation.

Speaking at the ceremony, the head of the EAJC recalled the massive rocket attack on the south of Israel during the anti-terrorist operation “Dawn” in Gaza in early August.

“In our holy writings, the Almighty expresses us words of approval, words of support. It is said: “Your enemies will seek support from you. The kings will worship you. You will not borrow, but you will lend,” Dr. Mirilashvili said.

“If you think about the deep meaning of these words, you can see their embodiment around us. Literally the whole world is watching us, the State of Israel. Our former enemies are now looking at us with hope and faith. They understand that we can support them, help them. Until recently, this seemed impossible, but such times have come – thanks to the ‘Abraham Accords’ between Israel and the Arab countries. These agreements just two years ago made possible what seemed impossible for decades. Thus began a new chapter in the history of the Middle East. And today we are its active participants.

In this regard, if our former enemies rely on us today, then we must show our strength in defending our own cities and settlements, so that those around us will believe in us even more. If only we, the Jewish people, would believe in ourselves like other nations believe in us. Our prosperity can only be reached by unity, which we clearly lack today. On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, I wish our people unity, peace, prosperity,” summed up the President of the Congress.

10 days after the end of the anti-terrorist operation of the Israel Defense Forces “Guardian of the Walls” in the Gaza Strip at the end of May 2021, the Jewish National Fund launched a project to build several dozen mobile protective structures in southern Israeli settlements, close to the border with the Gaza Strip. The project was implemented in close coordination with local settlement councils and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Particular attention was paid to the border farmland area to ensure the protection of farmers during potential shelling from the Strip.

The military operation “Guardian of the Walls” (May 2021) began in response to a massive rocket attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip by terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. During the escalation of the conflict, about 4,360 rockets were fired from the enclave towards Israel, most of them towards the southern cities of the country. As a result of the shelling, 8 Israelis (including a 5-year-old child) and three citizens of foreign states were killed. More than 350 citizens of the Jewish state were injured of varying severity.

The past year has been extraordinarily difficult. Hard trials continue to fall on most of the mankind and the world Jewish community as well. This year, many had to experience unprecedented difficulties, realize the value of human life and once again recall eternal values.

At times like these, we realize that “peace” is not just a beautiful word. We say it often, but sometimes we forget what it really stands for. Peace is a great respect for human rights, freedom and the opinion of others. This is cooperation between people and nations, the exchange of ideas, scientific and technological progress. Peace is, first of all, humanity, mercy and the holiness of life.

It is exactly what Judaism has taught the Jewish people for centuries. Moses in the book of Deuteronomy tells the people directly: between life and death, choose life. For the sake of life and its salvation, we not only might, we are obliged to violate one of the most important commandments – the observance of Shabbat. In this case, the breach becomes compliance. It is hard to realize that such cases have become a monstrous routine this year.

Such a reverent attitude to life, responsibility for each other and readiness to help are in the very heart of the modern Jewish state’s character, which has grown on a solid foundation of several thousand years tradition. These are the foundations of our faith and life, which we can pass on to other nations.

These values ​​form the basis of our organization as well. For 30 years, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress has been taking care of the communities needs of the region, and among them, of course, the communities of the former Soviet Union countries. We supported them in the most difficult moments, we continue to support them now.

We pray for the peace and fulfill our moral duty – to help and support everyone who needs our help, being in a very difficult situation today.

In the darkest times, even when it was difficult to accept and comprehend everything that was happening around, the Jewish people did not lose their faith and did not stop praying. According to our tradition, the entire month of Elul, and especially the Ten Days between Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, is precisely a time when the Almighty is especially open to our prayers. Let us consider what we could have done better this past year and make a sincere request for peace. So that, G-d willing, the next year, 5783, would be a year of calmness, forgiveness, healing of wounds, global awareness of the great value of peace and the unacceptability of war.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress heartily congratulates you on the upcoming 5783 Jewish New Year!

Shana tova u-metuka!

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael Mirilashvili

President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress at the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions was represented by EAJC Board Chairman Aaron G. Frenkel, EAJC Honorary President Alexander Mashkevich and EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yakov. They took part in the discussion about issues of interaction between world confessions and the development of relations between Kazakhstan and Israel in various fields.

Opening the forum, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that the land of Kazakhstan “for millennia has acted as a connecting bridge between East and West.” “Currently, representatives of more than 100 ethnic groups live in harmony in Kazakhstan, about 4,000 religious associations representing 18 confessions operate freely. We believe that this is our priceless wealth and inalienable advantage. Holding the Congress is an important part of Kazakhstan’s policy aimed at strengthening dialogue and cooperation both in our country and around the world,” the head of state noted.

EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yaakov spoke at the plenary session at the Congress. In his speech, he called on statesmen, religious authorities, opinion leaders and influencers to “use their voice to promote the values of acceptance, respect, dialogue and multiculturalism.”

“I am also happy to represent Israel here,” he said. – A state built on the basis of centuries-old biblical values. Historically, the land of Israel has always been at the crossroads of continents, civilizations, empires and peoples. Such a sensitive geographical position required and still requires maximum diplomacy from us. In the difficult conditions of wars and terror, we persistently offer peace to our neighbors. Finally, these efforts are bearing fruit. The recently signed ‘Abrahamic Accords’ have already led to an unprecedented close cooperation between Israel and the countries of the Persian Gulf.”

“We already see how much the peace process, the rich scientific, cultural and technological exchange lead us to incomparably more than senseless enmity. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree on everything, but it does mean that we are carrying on a civilized dialogue and can discuss our differences patiently and respectfully. And thus, we are on the right path.

As part of the official visit, the delegation of the Congress, together with the chief Sephardic and Ashkenazi rabbis of Israel Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau, took part in a festive event dedicated to the 18th anniversary of the Astana synagogue, meeting with the leaders of the local Jewish community.

In addition, on the morning of September 15, EAJC leaders took part in a tree planting ceremony in the new Peace and Harmony park. As part of the working meetings, the leaders of the Congress talked with Chairman of the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan Maulen Ashimbayev, rabbis from the regions of Kazakhstan, American rabbi Marc Schneier, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein and executive vice-president of the National American Conference in Support of Eurasian Jewry Mark Levin.