Rabbi Melchior, a former Deputy Foreign Minister and Deputy and Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Israeli Society, has long been and remains at the forefront of the international struggle against antisemitism. He has taken action for the restitution of Holocaust victims’ property and the nurturing of Israel–Diaspora relations. His love of the Jewish people and his strong relations with Diaspora communities gave him a pioneering role in the establishment of birthright Israel. He has chaired the birthright steering committee ever since the program was formed. In the past seven years birthright israel has brought more than 100,000 young Jews to Israel to discover their heritage and, in the wake of the visit, to reassess their Jewish identity and assume roles in their communities of origin.
Rabbi Melchior has received a number of awards in recognition of his work in these areas, including: the Tolerance Prize awarded at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, the Peace Prize of the Anglican Church for contributions to peace and reconciliation, and a Prize fromYeshivat HaKotel for his work with Diaspora Jewry.
Rabbi Melchior’s Views on the Problem of Antisemitism
Rabbi Melchior, an activist for the past 30 years in the field of the Holocaust and Antisemitism , has earned a global reputation as an expert on the topic.
His positions in this field have included Minister and Deputy Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Israeli Society, Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of action against Antisemitism for the Government, international director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, chair of the Israel Forum against Antisemitism, and member of the Knesset committee for discovery and recovery of Holocaust properties.
“A hundred twenty-six years after the expression of ‘Antisemitism’ first saw the light of day,” Rabbi Melchior says, “we still contend with this shameful and terrifying phenomenon every day. Antisemitism continues to spread and metastasize all over the world. If once the Jews had to cope with classical Antisemitism, which marked Jews as individuals who belong to a religious or ethnic group and denied them the fundamental right to live as equal partners in a free society, today a dangerous new antisemitism is looming, attacking not only individual Jews but also the Jews as a collective—and, translated into our current reality—Israel, the state of the Jews.”
In Rabbi Melchior’s opinion, since antisemitism originates in the non-Jewish peoples, the ability to stamp out the disease resides not with the Jews but with the peoples who harbor the hatred. Therefore, action against antisemitism should be conducted by addressing non-Jewish figures and mobilizing them for the struggle.
Rabbi Melchior criticizes the portrayal of the Holocaust in Israel particularly, and among world Jewry generally, as the exclusive property of the Jewish people. This, he explains, harms the cause of explaining the Holocaust to the rest of the world and is off-putting to the other nations.
In Rabbi Melchior’s view, antisemitism is part of a growing global phenomenon of racism; therefore, the problem is global. Only by connecting the Holocaust discourse with the global discourse on human rights and war on racism can one reach out to the public for a better understanding of the Holocaust.
Rabbi Melchior also claims that Israel’s overuse of the term has cheapened the concept of Antisemitism. It is harmful and destructive to fling this term at the world at every turn, he claims. “When people around the world criticize the State of Israel, it is not necessarily Antisemitism. It’s important to be careful in using this charged term and not to invoke it whenever Israel is criticized.”
