Articles by Andrew Baker

One of the most important and useful tools in the global fight is the Working Definition of Antisemitism.
There were over a dozen “authors” of this definition, originally issued by the European Union’s Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in 2005 — scholars on antisemitism, Jewish organizational experts and advocates in Europe, Israel and the United States. I was one of them

As European governments have woken to the need to fight antisemitism, they should adopt a common European approach to guarantee this religious practice. Europe cannot be a home for Jews if they are subject to violence, but much less if they cannot practice their faith like any other citizen.

The IHRA Working Definition is an essential, effective tool in the fight against antisemitism.

This Shabbat, I will join some 200 Jews from Egypt, now living in Europe, Israel and the United States, to pray in the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, their childhood house of worship, in Alexandria.

It is unfortunate that proposed legislation that enjoyed broad, bipartisan support fell victim to the hyperpartisan climate of Washington. Now enacted by a presidential executive order, and signed at a White House Hanukkah party in the presence of mostly Republican friends and supporters, what had been known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act will make an important but modest contribution to addressing the problem of antisemitism on the nation’s college campuses.

Antisemitism is sometimes compared to a virus. While we can’t eliminate it, we at least know how to keep it under control. But what if we’re wrong? What if, like a virus, antisemitism has developed a new strain, unresponsive to all the traditional treatments?

Antisemitism is sometimes compared to a virus. While we can’t eliminate it, we at least know how to keep it under control. But what if we’re wrong? What if, like a virus, antisemitism has developed a new strain, unresponsive to all the traditional treatments?

In many cases the perpetrators appear to be Muslim. But do we know this for a fact, and if so what should be done about it? Does the recent surge in immigration from Muslim countries further endanger European Jews?

Thirteen years have passed since a comprehensive and updated definition of antisemitism was drafted and adopted by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, or EUMC. Now, with proposed congressional legislation and various state and local initiatives, there are calls for employing a definition here.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing about antisemitism. At issue was whether the Department of Education should consult a comprehensive definition of antisemitism when addressing Jewish students’ complaints of harassment on college campuses, and whether Congress should instruct the Department of Ed to do so.

Today’s Hungarian Jewish Community, the largest in Central Europe, has come to embrace George Soros. Not Soros the man, but Soros the symbol.