Last week, Romanian representatives and the members of the U.S. Congress and of the Administration, Jewish organizations, experts, and members of the diplomatic corps in Washington, D.C., joined a roundtable to address past and current threats of antisemitism and ways to combat it.
The event marked 20 years since the launch of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania (known as the “Elie Wiesel Commission”), which was chaired by Romanian-born and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who was a Holocaust survivor and dedicated his life to commemorating the Holocaust and educating the world about it.
Former members of the Wiesel Commission and members of the US Administration praised Romania’s efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and fight against antisemitism. Many of these efforts were due to the work of the Commission and its recommendations published in a Final Report in 2004 that led to a series of positive developments, including Romania playing a leading role in the adoption of IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism in 2016, during Romania’s chairmanship of the body. Other developments include the appointment of a special representative for promoting the policies of memory, for fighting against antisemitism and xenophobia and the fact that Romania made Holocaust education mandatory for all high schools and vocational schools.
Speakers highlighted that antisemitism is the symptom of the stability of a society and argued that new mechanisms need to be devised to fight against it, as we now have tools of hatred that no generation before us had. The Elie Wiesel Commission in Romania was praised as the most important and effective of all Holocaust Commissions. The Ambassador of Romania to the United States, HE Andrei Muraru, argued about the launch of the Wiesel Commission that it “set our country on a path of progress in terms of combating antisemitism and honoring the memory of the Holocaust” and quoted President Ronald Reagan in saying that Elie Wiesel “helped make the memory of the Holocaust eternal.”
The panel featured 14 members of Congress: U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, U.S. Representative Haley Stevens, U.S. Representative Don Bacon, U.S. Representative Andy Kim, U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat, U.S. Representative Greg Landsman, U.S. Representative Brian Mast, U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur, U.S. Representative Mike Lawler, U.S. Representative Jim Baird, U.S. Representative Stacey Plaskett, U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, U.S. Representative Brad Schneider, U.S. Representative Dan Goldman.
The panel also included the Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to the United States, HE Viorel Ursu, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Guido-O’Grady, Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Dan Mariaschin, CEO B’nai B’rith International, Paul Shapiro, Director of the Office of International Affairs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Michael Berenbaum, professor at the American Jewish University, Mark Levin, Vice Chairman and CEO, National Coalition for Eurasian Jewry. The Romanian minister of Culture, Raluca Turcan, also attended the event.
The event was organized by the Embassy of Romania to the United States and Project Legacy.
