The "New Antisemitism" Reviewed in Bar-Ilan University

Online, January 4, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Participants were welcomed by the Bar-Ilan rector Prof. Moshe Kaveh, Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev and the Head of the Department for Activities in Israel and Countering Antisemitism of the WZO Yaakov Hagoel.

Irwin Cotler's lecture became the keynote of the first day. Hon. Prof. Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, presented on "Nuremberg and Genocide Convention 65 years later: what have we learned and what should we do?"

The "New Antisemitism" session was presented by three speakers: Prof. Shmuel Trigano of the Paris-X University ("The Third Era of Hatred of Jews"), his colleague at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Raphael Vago ("Antisemitism in Post-Communism Countries") and Prof. Ilan Gur-Zeev of Haifa ("Israel in the Face of Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism and the New Progressivism").

"Antisemitism in the Muslim World" section attracted a record number of speakers. "The Arabs and the Holocaust" report by Irit Abramsky, the head of the International School for Holocaust Studies at "Yad Vashem" The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority , generated a special interest.

A considerable part of the Congress second day was devoted to professional sessions in different languages held at the same time. The Russian-speaking section was presented by JewishNet Jewish Social Platform, moderating two panels: "Israel in the World of New Media: friends, enemies, the strategy of operation" and "Social Networks and Civil Society: how to use the new technologies influence?"

"It is a pleasure to note that the "Russian" section of the Congress was represented by only a professional audience", says Roman (Rafael) Gold, the JewishNet CEO & Founder and a member of the Congress extended Steering Committee. "Lawyers and journalists, political scientists and marketers, designers and publicists are among our sessions participants, all who care about the fate of Israel."

The final session was chaired by Itzhak Dahan, a member of the World Zionist Organization Executive Committee. A speech in the best traditions of rhetoric by Avraham Duvdevani, the Chair of the WZO, was followed by a profound lecture on "The Ongoing Anti-Semitism from the Jewish Point of View" by Israel Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv.

The Congress concluded with a short summing up of a unique discussion, which attracted the academic elite of Israel, the USA, France, Italy and several other states.