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April 8, 2004
OU
Applauds Senator Voinovich Bill to Combat Anti-Semitism
Urges Passage of Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, S.2292
The Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox
Jewish synagogue organization, applauds U.S. Senator George
Voinovich (R-OH) for introducing the Global Anti-Semitism Review
Act of 2004 (S.2292), a bill that would require the State
Department to submit an annual report to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and the House International Relations
Committee on acts of anti-Semitism worldwide.
A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on
European Affairs, Senator Voinovich has long been an outspoken
leader against anti-Semitism. At a congressional hearing held
Wednesday on the alarming rise of anti-Semitism throughout the
world, Senator Voinovich introduced this legislation as an
important and timely step in advance of the upcoming Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Conference on
anti-Semitism that will take place on April 28-29 in Berlin. The
OSCE is the largest regional security organization in the world
with fifty-five participating states in Europe, Central Asia, and
North America. The aim of the Conference is to ensure that the
international community will pay close attention to the problem of
anti-Semitism and be vigilant in fighting it.
Betty Ehrenberg, Director of International and Communal Affairs
for the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, said “We
praise Senator Voinovich for introducing the Global Anti-Semitism
Review Act of 2004, S.2292 that calls on governments to not only
condemn anti-Semitism but to also introduce concrete mechanisms to
help defeat it. Senator Voinovich has done much to call
governments’ attention to the dismaying rise of anti-Semitism in
Europe both in the U.S. Senate and in meetings of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly”.
“We are looking forward to Senator Voinovich’s continued
leadership at the OCSE Conference on Anti-Semitism in Berlin”,
added Ehrenberg, who will be a member of the United States
delegation to the Conference. “Our goal will be to make sure that
countries in the OSCE region will not only condemn anti-Semitism,
but will also take strong measures to counteract it, such as
creating and enforcing laws that will protect the religious
freedoms of the Jews and actively promoting anti-bias education.
We ask all our members to contact Senators and urge them to
support and help pass S.2292, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act
of 2004”.
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