European Jews to gather at Brussels for prize award and remembrance of Toulouse victims
Jerzy Buzek to be awarded Lord Jakobovits Prize by Conference of European Rabbis.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz to speak at ceremony.
In a special ceremony to be held on Tuesday, 27 March,at the Great Synagogue of Europe in Brussels, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) will award the first “Prix du Judaïsme Européen - Prix Lord Jakobovits” to the former prime minister of Poland and former president of the European Parliament, Prof. Jerzy Buzek MEP, for his efforts in support of Polish and European Jewry. The award ceremony will be addressed by the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz MEP. A number of European and Belgian political leaders, diplomats, as well as chief rabbis and other representatives of European Jewish communities will be present, including the chief rabbi of Toulouse, Avraham Weill.
CER President Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow, will present Prof. Buzek with the prize, which is named after CER’s second president, former British Commonwealth Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits (1921-99). A refugee from Nazi Germany who arrived in the UK just before the outbreak of World War II, Lord Jakobovits embodied the spirit of Torah Im Derech Eretz, a philosophy linking full participation of Jews in European culture and society with adherence to Jewish tradition.
“For many years, Jerzy Buzek has been a great friend of the Jewish people. Both as Polish PM and European Parliament president, he built bridges, vigorously fought anti-Semitism, helped to keep up the memory of the Shoah and was a supporter of the State of Israel,” Rabbi Goldschmidt declared.
The ceremony at Brussels’ main synagogue, which was consecrated by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso as Great Synagogue of Europe in 2008, will also include a special prayer for the victims of the Toulouse shootings. During the ceremony, children from local Jewish schools will read out a psalm in memory of the Toulouse victims. To emphasise the message of education for tolerance and mutual respect, classes from the European School in Brussels will also be present. World-renowned cantors Benjamin and Israel Muller will officiate at the gathering, with is jointly hosted by CER and the Brussels Jewish Community.
"This public affirmation of our continued commitment to the values of tolerance and democracy which form the basis of the European Union needs to be reasserted particularly at this time when we are mourning the passing of our children as the result of a hate crime on the European continent," Rabbi Goldschmidt said.
"Coming just one week before Pesach, the ultimate Jewish festival of liberation and freedom, when we transfer the message to our children of the continued victory of the forces of light over those of darkness, it is particularly poignant that we gather here to reassert our commitment to those values," he added.