He will join Monday dozens of senior political figures from 25 European countries and Israel invited by the European Jewish Association to discuss and find solutions to the astronomic rise of antisemitism affecting Europe since the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This is the first major Jewish conference since October 7th.
Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform, will participate Monday in a symposium in Krakow, Poland, in commemoration of the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On this occasion, he is also expected to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where 1.1 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis, and attend a memorial service along with a delegation of several dozens of European political figures invited by the European Jewish Association (EJA), the largest federation of Jewish communities in Europe.
At the symposium on fighting antisemitism titled ‘’Never Again : Lip Service or Deep Conversation,’’ Musk will have a conversation with American journalist Ben Shapiro on the topic of antisemitism online.
Last September, during a live conversation on ‘X’ with Jewish leaders, Musk accepted ‘’in principle’’ to visit Auschwitz at the invitation of EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin told him that he ‘’should to walk there, to feel it, to understand it.’’
During the conversation, Musk spoke of his Jewish connections. “I actually went to Hebrew preschool in South Africa when I was a kid. Now, I don’t know if I’m sort of genetically Jewish or what, but maybe somewhere. I am aspirationally Jewish.”
Among the prominent personalities who will also participaTe and speak at the Krakow symposium are Miguel Angel Moratinos, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Shikli, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan as well as ministers and parliamentarians from the European Union, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Poland.
The conference will also see the launch of the EJA Leaders’ Forum to combat Antisemitism led by former Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.
“With rates of antisemitism in Europe at levels unseen since WW2, doing nothing is not an option” said Rabbi Margolin. ”Never again is really now, and it is why we are going to inaugurate on Monday the first of its kind “European Leader’s Forum for Combatting Antisemitism” headed up by the 10th President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, and including former prominent European political leaders: Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, former Bulgarian President, Petar Stoyanov, former Czechia Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, former President of Greece, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, former President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, fFormer President of Montengro, Milo Đukanović and former Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Lofven, to focus minds at the very top of every European government, to tighten legislation against hate speech, and to work with universities – hotbeds of hate against Jews and Israel, as well as football clubs and sporting institutions.”
Rabbi Margolin outlined the forum’s priorities: ”Creating or tightening existing legislation covering hate speech using the IHRA definition as a benchmark, working with deans and rectors at universities to stop the rabid antisemitism and antizionism on campuses, and lastly engaging with top-flight football clubs and other sporting institutions to work towards antisemitism free spaces at their fixtures.”