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Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, opened Thursday in Geneva an exhibition of paintings from his Moscow-based collection of leading 20th-century artists, mainly Russians, including works by Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Mark Rothko and Ilya Kabakov. It is the first exhibition outside Russia from the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery Collection in Moscow.
Photo: EJP
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GENEVA (EJP)---European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Moshe Kantor said the strengthening of extreme-right parties all over Europe in last week’s elections for the European Parliament “was not a surprise for us”.
"It’s not a surprise because it only reflects what already happened in the European public mentality", he told journalists at the UN headquarter in Geneva where he opened an exhibition of paintings from his Moscow-based collection of leading 20th-century artists, mainly Russians, including works by Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Mark Rothko and Ilya Kabakov.
"The problem is that we are too far from our last tragedy. These tendencies to go to the extreme-right or extreme-left is a very cyclic phenomenon. Just now we are on a bad cycle. That’s why we have to increase our efforts to fight against all forms of racism, xenophobia, extremism and the most historically part of all this, which is anti-Semitism," the head of the umbrella organization of Jewish communities across Europe.
"Because our means are limited we have to find ways of what I call 'ice breaking'. Ice breakers never destroy the whole ocean of ice but only limited parts and directions. We are planning very seriously our next event on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army, on January 27, 2010 at the United Nations in New York."
Moshe Kantor said he would discuss on Thursday the results of the European elections with former Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski, who now chairs the Council for Tolerance and reconciliation, a Paris-based body launched last year to promote dialogue and tolerance on the continent.
Last week, the European Jewish Congress expressed concern about the increased use of racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric by candidates in the European Parliament elections.