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26 years since AMIA bombing: WJC and Latin American affiliate honor victims in virtual candle-lighting
terror, as manifested by the long arm of Iran, and its proxy, Hezbollah, remains a dangerous threat as well. Incitement to violence abounds on the internet, turning from hateful rhetoric into physical danger.
With the onset of the coronavirus came a decrease in physical attacks against Jewish communities, but a rise in online activity promoting conspiracy myths, Holocaust denial and distortion, and other forms of hate. Together with our communities, the WJC is closely monitoring these growing streams of antisemitism, prepared to contend with threats both online and in the physical sphere.
The WJC has expanded its online research capabilities to collect concrete information about antisemitic individuals, organizations, events, hubs, and platforms, to report to local authorities and halt threatening activity. The WJC has also focused its efforts on helping communities advocate for stronger governmental policies and legislation against antisemitism and improving education about the dangers of xenophobia both in schools and in the public arena. The WJC has also taken an active role in ensuring that European Union states follow through on their pledge to support Jewish communal security and continues to campaign for similar policies in other regions of the world. In recent years, the WJC has assisted our communities around the world in strengthening their physical security infrastructures, and guided crisis management trainings and seminars, with an emphasis on ensuring efficiency in contending directly with threats. With this expertise, the WJC recently assisted the Czech Republic in developing a methodology for protecting soft targets, and taking these efforts to the international arena, signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN’s Office of Counter-Terrorism on combating global threats.
26 years since AMIA bombing: WJC and Latin American affiliate honor victims in virtual candlelighting
The WJC and its regional affiliate, the Latin American Jewish Congress, marked the 26th anniversary of the deadly bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) building in July 2020 with a virtual candle-lighting ceremony in honor of the 85 people who lost their lives, and the hundreds more that were wounded in the Hezbollah-perpetrated attack of 18 July 1994.
President Lauder recorded a special video message in which he stressed that “we know from history that when hatred targets Jews, the bombs do not distinguish the religion of the victims and the entire humankind suffers. And without memory and without justice, these wounds remain open.”
In 2019, the WJC and LAJC released a commemorative anthology entitled “Justice You Shall Pursue!” to mark the 25th anniversary of the deadly attack, featuring a compilation of calls for justice and reflections by world leaders and other prominent individuals.
