EJC Conference
EJC ConferenceYoni Kempinski

As the general election in Poland approaches, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) has noted a surge in antisemitic tropes in mainstream Polish media and denounced attacks on the Jewish communities of the European Union.

"In what can only be regarded as a coordinated media campaign, Polish officials systematically single out the long-term president of the EJC, Dr Moshe Kantor, and blatantly and baselessly accuse him of using the office of president of the EJC for personal gain. This outrageous claim is a conspiracy theory, which is nurtured and amplified by antisemitic stereotypes," the EJC said.

"It is also an attack on the democratically-elected Jewish communities of Europe who elected and re-elected Dr Kantor to the office of president, renewing their trust in his groundbreaking and historic work to fight against antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and denial, and for the security and values of the Jewish minority in Europe."

The EJC also recalled that "Poland continues to hold out on its historic responsibility in the Shoah and to actively oppose claims for compensation for Jewish victims of the Holocaust - they are now making headlines for violating the rule of law."

For the last 20 years, Dr. Kantor has been at the forefront of the fight for preservation of historical truth, the memory of the Shoah and for the restitution of Jewish properties to the victims. The attacks on him in the Polish media are not new. The President of Poland already mounted an attack against Dr Kantor and the EJC on the occasion of the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, a gathering of 50 heads of state and government to honor the memory of the Holocaust and to commit to fighting antisemitism, and the largest diplomatic event ever to be organized in Jerusalem by then-President Reuven Rivlin of Israel.

"It seems that senior members of the ruling party in Poland found in the tragedy of the war in Ukraine an opportunity to renew and blow out their baseless attacks, and use them as a political campaign," EJC added.

"The European Parliament has recently already denounced the 'deliberate and systematic efforts' made by the Polish government to undermine the core values of the European Union. The EJC denounces lies and antisemitic tropes. It is high time that all democrats in the EU call out extremists and prevent them from dictating the agenda, whether in Poland or at the EU level."