Crif | UNGA79 - Crif in New York for the UN General Assembly

"Antisemites use the memory of dead Jews to attack living Jews," declared the President of CRIF on Monday evening, during an event organized by France, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Earlier this week, CRIF President Yonathan Arfi and International Affairs Officer Marie-Sarah Seeberger were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

On Monday evening, the CRIF President was invited to participate in the event organized by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the French mission to the UN and UNESCO, "Combating antisemitism and hate speech through education", organized on the sidelines of the 79th session of the General Assembly.

The event opened with speeches by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who arrived in New York a few hours after taking office, then by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder then spoke, followed by Keren Yahri-Milo, Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University.

The Foreign Ministers of Morocco, Argentina, Albania, the Netherlands and Rwanda also spoke.

A panel then brought together Yonathan Arfi, President of CRIF, H.E. Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, and Robert Williams, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation.

Finally, the Director of the American Jewish Committee Ted Deutch concluded the event.

French Ambassador for Human Rights Isabelle Rome was also present for this event.

Lundi soir, le Président du Crif @Yonathan_Arfi était à New York pour participer à l'événement de la France @fancediplo @jnbarrot @franceonu et de l'@UNESCO, "Combattre l'antisémitisme et les discours de haine par l'éducation", organisé en marge de l'Assemblée générale des… pic.twitter.com/DuI1K0qJUu

— CRIF (@Le_CRIF) September 24, 2024

Speech of Crif President Yonathan Arfi:

"I was born 35 years after the Holocaust.

I was raised with the idea that the only way to educate against antisemitism was to teach the history of the Holocaust.

I was raised with the idea that paying respect to the dead Jews would be the best protection for the living ones.

I was considering myself a lucky Jew. Why? For living in France, one of the few countries in the world where Holocaust denial is against the law. A country which recognized its own responsibility in the Holocaust in 1995. A country with a flourishing Jewish community. A country where Jews could be regular citizens without any assignation to their Jewish identity. A place where we used to say « Happy like a Jew in France ».
There were antisemitic incidents, but we were all thinking we could curb antisemitism.

But the reality today must be said clearly. All around this table, we failed! We succeeded in Holocaust education, but we failed in protecting Jews against antisemitism!

Holocaust remembrance is not a responsibility to the past. It is a responsibility to track and fight antisemitism at present.

After October 7, « the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century » as said by President Emmanuel Macron, Jews could expect a global wave of solidarity. Instead of that, they had to face a hurricane of hate.

Today most antisemites do not hide behind Holocaust denial. They hide behind Holocaust distortion. They don't say that Jews were not killed by the Nazis. They say that Jews are now the new Nazis. With this accusatory inversion, antisemites use the memory of dead Jews to attack the living Jews.

This accusation does not target only Israel, it targets the whole Jewish people. It has to be said strongly: Israel, like any other country, can be criticized. But the nazification of Jews is pure antisemitism.

As Robert Badinter, former French minister of Justice said at the end of his life: « We must have the lucidity to recognize that under the name of Anti-Zionism, it is indeed the Jews, and Jews everywhere, who are targeted. »
Dear friends, if we seriously want to be efficient against antisemitism, we have to cope with the hatred of Jews as it is today. We have to cope with anti-Zionism, with radical Islam, with conspiracy theories galvanized by social media.

October 7 did not put a target only on Jews. Our whole democratic values were targeted too. And I want here to pay respect to Dominique Bernard the French teacher killed by an Islamist terrorist in the north of France a few days after October 7. He is another French victim of October 7 attacks.

To conclude, I want to commend my country for initiating this important event and I hope for the release of all hostages still being held by Hamas, among them 2 French nationals.

Thank you."

In New York, the CRIF also participated in meetings and events with the World Jewish Congress (WJC), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).