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New European Jewish parliament riles existing European Jewish leaders

By Toby Axelrod · February 14, 201

BERLIN (JTA) -- A new European Jewish parliament is set to open in Brussels this week, the brainchild of two businessmen philanthropists on a mission to shake up the status quo.

But who are these representatives? And what exactly will they do? That remains a mystery.

Novi Evropski židovski parlament, koji  se treba otvoriti ovog tjedna u Brusselsu, je tvorevina dva "biznismena filantropa" koji žele "prodrmati" sadašnje stanje.

Igor Kolomoisky i Vadim Rabinovich, ukrajinski židovski moguli, isnovali su Evropsku židovsku uniju ( European Jewish Union) prošlog proljeća i otvoriti  će njezin novi parlament u ceremoniji u EU, u četvrtak. Prema njihovom pozivu, 120 židovskih članova parlamenta su izabrani od 403.810 glasača iz cijele Evrope.

Ali tko su ti predstavnici i što će oni  u stvari raditi, to ostaje tajna.

Među kandidatima za izbor su David Beckham, Roman Polanski, Sacha Baron Cohen, Diane von Furstenburg i drugi poznati i manje poznati evropski Židovi, mnogi od njih nikada nisu pokazivali interes i ne znaju ništa o planiranom parlamentu.

Dva dana prije nego što će biti svećanost  EJU otvorenja, njihova WEB stranica nije stavila listu kandidata, a službenici EJU odbijaju odgovarati na pitanja JTA o parlamentu, prije njegova ustanovljenja.

Ali cilj je jednostavan, o tome je pisao Rabinovich u "Jeruzalem Postu":  Evropsko židovstvo je slomljeno ("broken record") i treba promjene.

“The same people have remained in power, and the word that describes the situation best is ‘monotony,’ ” wrote Rabinovich, who with Kolomoisky also founded a Jewish TV news station, Jewish News One, in September. “There is nothing horrible about change, despite the threat it poses to the elderly activists."

"Isti su ljud i ostali na položajima, i riječ koja najbolje opisuje situaciju je "monotonija", pisao je Rabinovich, koji je zajedno sa Kolomoisky-m osnovao i židovsku TV stanicu "Jewish News One" u rujnu.

 "Nema ništa strašno u promjenama,  osim opasnosti za starije aktiviste". Opis se odnosi na evropske židovske lidere koji su izabrani od svojih lokalnih zajednica. Njima je rečeno,  u njihovim EU kontaktima,  da ne uzimaju "novodošle" ( Newcomers) ozbiljno , uključujući otvoreno pismo (u prosincu) da su Kolomolsky i Rabinovich "dva privatna biznismena iz Ukrajine".

Kritike gledaju na EJU i njezin parlament, u najboljem slučaju  kao na šalu, a u najgorjem slučaju kao nož u leđa od strane dva ukrajinska lidera, nekon što su židovske grupe provele dvije dekade radeći na obnovi židovskog života u poslijeratnoj Evropi.

Kritike su eskalirale prošlog tjedna nakon što se saznalo da je EJU pozvao "Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations", krovnu organizaciju  za 51 U.S.  židovsku grupu,  da sudjeluju na inaguraciji parlamenta, a izostavili su izabrane lidere lokalnih židovskih zajednica.

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“Working with the EJU would offend European communities, and I am sure you would like to avoid that,” Meyer Habib, vice president of the French Jewish community, wrote in an e-mail to Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference.

Hoenlein is leading the Presidents Conference mission to Brussels before it heads to Israel. He told JTA that his organization was coming to meet with EU leaders and would not be attending the opening of the EJU parliament.

However, Hoenlein did acknowledge that the Presidents Conference would be using the EJU's facilities in Brussels and that his group had accepted an offer from the EJU to charter a plane to fly the mission’s participants from Brussels to Tel Aviv.

“It was their gesture, otherwise we would have been stuck in Brussels for Shabbat,” Hoenlein said, noting that the CEO of the EJU, Tomer Orni, is an old friend. Orni declined to speak with JTA for this story.

It wasn’t clear whether there would be any meetings in Brussels this week between the EJU and the Presidents Conference. But the idea that American Jewry’s leading foreign policy umbrella organization might be lending credence to the EJU has riled even some American Jewish friends of European Jewish leaders.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs, told JTA that he had urged the Presidents Conference to reconsider any alliance with EJU.

“Most of the established Jewish community leadership organizations stand in a kind of formal opposition to this newly formed group,” Baker said, adding that “it would be a mistake” to collaborate with them.

Lideri većine postojećih židovskih zajednica su u formalnoj opoziciji prema novostvorenim grupama , a Baker ( Rabbi Andrew Baker) je dodao da će biti pogreška ako se surađuje s njima.

Baker je rekao da Rabinovićeva reputacija može naškoditi odnosima među Evropske unije i židovskih organizacija.

It’s more than simple intergroup rivalry, according to Baker, noting concerns that he and European Jewish leaders have about Rabinovich’s background.

Rabinovich spent nine years in a Soviet prison for theft from the state, and a 2003 New York Times report suggested that Rabinovich has been barred from entering the United States. Rabinovich, who did not respond to interview requests for this story made through his Jewish News One channel, has said that his imprisonment was politically motivated and related to his being Jewish, and a State Department official told JTA that it does not maintain a list of individuals barred from entering the country.

Baker said Rabinovich's reputation could damage relations between the European Union and Jewish organizations.

For his part, Hoenlein suggested the tempest among European Jewish leaders was about intergroup rivalries between people like Moshe Kantor, the Russian businessman philanthropist who is the elected head of the European Jewish Congress, and Rabinovich and Kolomoisky.

Maurice Sosnowski, the head of Belgium’s Jewish community, said all of this could be confusing for EU parliamentarians when they get knocks on their doors from individuals purporting to represent the Jewish people.

“If everyone wants to show that they represent the Jewish community, then [EU officials] won’t know who to shake hands with,” Sosnowski said. “And maybe one day they will not shake hands anymore.”