The Netherlands is to get a new national coordinator to tackle anti-Semitism, and to strengthen the official approach towards dealing with threats, discrimination and intimidation, Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said on Sunday.
The announcement was welcomed by leading figures in Dutch and European Jewry.
The move to appoint a coordinator on the fight against antisemitism follows pressure from the Jewish community amid a marking increase in antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands.
“Just this weekend my synagogue and the Liberal synagogue in Utrecht were daubed with swastika symbols. It appears that the attacker had mental health issues, but it is abundantly clear to us that the pandemic has brought out the worst in people,’’ said Ellen Van Praagh Chair of the Inter Provincial Chief Rabbinate for The Netherlands (IPOR) and European Jewish Association Board Member.
“It has seen the resurrecting of old tropes about Jews, which has fueled a rise in antisemitism and antisemitic acts, the numbers of which are alarming to Jews everywhere in Holland. That the government has decided to step in and tackle the root causes of this is welcome, as is their commitment to safeguard Jewish communities and institutions in the Neherlands,’’ she added.
Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands, whose contacts with the Dutch government have directly influenced the moved added: “It is of course indicative of the predicament facing Dutch Jews that the government has decided to appoint a national co-ordinator to tackle Anti-Semitism. Whilst we welcome such an appointment it is with a heavy heart that this position is even necessary in a country such as the Netherlands, whose very name is associated with tolerance and plurality. Nevertheless, as attacks increase, the national co-ordinator will find their inbox heaving with suggestions from Jews in Holland who want nothing more than to live in peace and practice their faith unhindered.”
The Chairman of Brussels based European Jewish Association (AJA), Rabbi Menachem Margolin, recalled that his organization has called for every country in Europe to appoint such a co-ordinator ‘’as part of our Europe-wide plan to tackle antisemitism.’’ ‘’We applaud the Dutch Government as the latest country to make this move and to join a growing list of European countries with national coordinators whose task is to eradicate the virus of antisemitism that has grown in tandem with the virus of Covid 19.”
He added: ””Too many Jewish communities across Europe have been forced to pull the alarm cord and call for help. That governments are heeding this call is reassuring, yes, but it is also a signal that they do not wish the disgusting stain of antisemitism to spread further on their social fabric.’’