Following a complaint from a Bosnian minister, a biannual meeting of the Conference of European Rabbis that was to be held in Sarajevo next week was canceled at the last minute.
A biannual gathering of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) that had been scheduled to be held next week at a hotel in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, next week, has been canceled and the Chief Rabbis of multiple European nations have been disinvited after a Bosnian minister demanded a boycott of the rabbinical organization.
The event has been relocated to Munich, Germany.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), said in response: “The CER’s biannual Standing Committee meeting was due to be held at the Swisshotel in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, next week. Chief Rabbis from all over Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, were due to convene to discuss the most pressing issues facing European Jewish life today and matters of freedom of religion or belief. Shockingly, the hotel has suddenly cancelled on us.”
The cancellation follows an open letter written by the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Adnan Delic and published in the Bosnian press.
“Sarajevo,” Federal Minister Delic wrote, is a city of “openness and hospitality” and so should ban the European-Jewish event from its city.”
He called “on the organisers to immediately cancel the conference in Sarajevo, and on all relevant institutions to prevent its realisation, and on citizens and civil society organisations not to remain silent in the face of this attempt to morally humiliate our capital and our country.”
In his letter, he invoked harsh rhetoric against the State of Israel, declaring it a “genocidal entity” committing “shameful crimes against humanity.”
Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt continued, “No other Bosnian Government official has contacted the Conference of European Rabbis. We have been made unwelcome and this last-minute, ministerial boycott of Jewish European citizens, dedicated to purely to promoting Jewish life in Europe and furthering dialogue and democracy across the continent, is disgraceful.”
“CER events foster dialogue, boost interfaith activity, and promote public engagement. It is Sarajevo’s loss. We are delighted that the Bavarian Government will support our event’s relocation to Munich and we, as an organisation, will continue unfazed to be engaged supporting the Jewish communities of Europe.”
“However, a wider question looms. This decision to block a European-Jewish conference on European soil is not only alarming, but also revealing. It is a clear violation of EU commitments and values (The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 10 and 22; The European Council Declaration on Antisemitism, 2020). Bosnia and Herzegovina should certainly be cancelled and barred from accession to the European Union following this disgraceful castigation of a European faith group. Sarajevo has proclaimed itself a “city of openness and tolerance” for anyone but Jews.”
