The growing risks to European Jewish communities and the actions that countries should take to address the threats faced by their Jewish citizens was the focus of a hearing held today by a congressional panel that promotes human rights in the 57 countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and chaired by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04).

“The recent terrorist attacks in Brussels were reminders that Europeans of all religions and ethnicities are at risk from ISIS,” said Smith, who chairs the panel which held the hearing, the U.S. Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission. “But there can be no European security without Jewish security. As we have seen so many times in so many places, violence against Jewish communities often foreshadows violence against other religious, ethnic, and national communities. ISIS especially hates the Jewish people and has instructed its followers to prioritize killing them. The group’s cronies targeted the Jewish Museum of Belgium in May 2014, the Paris kosher supermarket in January 2015, and the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen in February 2015, and murdered people in all of them.” Click here to read Chairman Smith’s opening statement.

A number of other members of Congress spoke at the hearing, including Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), CSCE co-chairman, and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), Rep. Grayson (D-FL-09), Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL-14) and Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ-06).

Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Congress, and the OSCE’s Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson, thanked Smith for the “pioneering work you have done" in identifying and addressing the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe, and pressing the United States government and European States and in mobilizing the OSCE to confront the “age-old scourge” of anti-Semitism.

“One of the problems we have faced and we continue to face is that governments are slow to recognize the very problem itself, let alone to marshal the necessary resolve and expertise to confront it,”  Baker testified.

For the past two years, witnesses John J. Farmer, Jr., Rutgers University Professor of Law, has led an initiative at Rutgers designed to identify the best ways to protect vulnerable communities in light of the evolving threat.

 "We have worked with U.S. communities to develop what FBI officials have called an 'off-ramp' to radicalization," said Farmer. "This is a time of particular peril for the Jewish future in Europe, and it is incumbent upon us to do what we can to assure that future."

Jonathan Biermann, Brussels attorney and elected city councilman, and a former political adviser to the President of the Belgian Senate, the Development Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the current atmosphere among Belgian Jews. He is Executive Director of the Crisis Cell for the Belgian Jewish community.

“Community members are nowadays used to see Police, guards, military in front of Jewish buildings and schools,” Biermann said, recommending establishing Memorandums of Understanding as an important step. “Creating the tools to communicate amongst communities with the government will be considerably facilitated by the ‘See something Say something strategy,’”Beirmann said. “The collaboration with Law enforcement agencies has to be based on trust and confidence, in respect of international laws and rules protecting individual freedom, civil liberties and privacy.”

Paul Goldenberg, a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, serves on the Countering Violent Extremism Sub-Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Foreign Fighter Task Force and Vice-Chair of the Faith-Based Advisory & Communications Sub-Committee. He also works with the Faith-Based Communities Security Program at Rutgers University. “I have made countless trips in recent months overseas, traveling to multiple European cities,” Goldenberg said. “What we have seen, heard and learned has confirmed our initial hypothesis: while the levels of cooperation and partnerships between Jewish and other minority religious communities with their respective policing services–in many parts of Europe–is as diverse as the communities themselves, more work needs to be accomplished to move closer to a medium and standard of safety and security. While this presents distinct challenges, there is also hope. For much of what we have learned, innovated, tested and improved upon here in the United States, as well as in other progressive nations, can be imparted to, and replicated by, many of our partners.”

Smith also chairs the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations subcommittee. Documents, video and other information about today’s CSCE hearing, will be posted here.

In 2015, Smith held a hearing in, “After Paris and Copenhagen: Responding to the Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism,” on the crucial role of the U.S. and other participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in battling anti-Semitism and called for strong American leadership.

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