"…Mr. Margolin’s association of irrelevant and unrepresentative self-created groups does not in any way convey upon him a role as a spokesman or representative of our communities. He has never been chosen nor elected to any such role.…"
Above: Rabbi Menachem Margolin
Rabbi Menachem Margolin is a Chabad rabbi from Israel. The European Jewish Association Margolin heads is a Chabad front group.
Margolin has repeatedly taken public actions in the name of European Jews when in reality, he really represents no one but Chabad interest. Those actions often irritate and sometimes hurt European Jewish communities.
The most recent of Margolin's unilateral and deceptive stunts took place in the immediate aftermath of the Paris terror attacks. Margolin called on European countries to give Jews special permit to carry guns. (European countries almost all have strict gun control laws.)
The media – which rarely notes Margolin's Chabad links or his interloper status – billed the deceptive Chabad rabbi as "Europe's top rabbi" and the like. And that, combined with Margolin's call to arm Jews, caused all sorts of trouble for actual European Jews.
Today, official Jewish community leaders from across Europe issued a joint statement against Margolin. They call him "Mr.," not "Rabbi." And they make it very clear that Margolin does not represent them or their communities, writing that the European Jewish Congress is "the sole collective voice of European Jewry" – a direct slap at Margolin, his organization – and at Chabad's attempts to take over the European Jewish community country by country, often with the help, some say, of the Kremlin.
Here's the letter, via Yeshiva World. More signatures of Jewish community leaders will reportedly be added later today:
To whom it may concern,
We, the elected leaders of the national and representative Jewish community organisations across Europe, wish to state unequivocally that comments made recently by Menachem Margolin, Director of the European Jewish Association, regarding a desire to “arm” European Jews do not in any way represent the views of European Jewish communities.
Mr. Margolin lacks any expertise or authority to speak on these critical issues on behalf of the Jews of Europe, and therefore lacks all the basic components for Jewish community responsibility.
It is unfortunate, and indeed potentially dangerous to the welfare of our communities, that such comments were widely reported in the press last week in the wake of the terror attacks in France, a period when our community organisations were in constant contact with our governments and security agencies to protect our members and their families.
Mr. Margolin’s association of irrelevant and unrepresentative self-created groups does not in any way convey upon him a role as a spokesman or representative of our communities. He has never been chosen nor elected to any such role.
Our organisations are uniquely recognized as the official interlocutors for our Jewish communities in all our countries.
It is therefore that we call upon the political echelon at the national or pan-European level to treat Mr. Margolin’s comments as those only of an individual bearing no relationship whatsoever to the expressed views and concerns of the democratically-elected leadership of our communities, working together and united under the umbrella of the sole collective voice of European Jewry, the European Jewish Congress.
Please click to enlarge:
Related Posts: