What To Do To Fight Massive Antisemitism Today?

Legal steps to implement in the post-October 7th new reality

Recently, our Foundation took part in the Conference Addressing Antisemitism in the OSCE Region, organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and its OSCE Chairmanship Task Force as the first in the series of the OSCE conferences scheduled for year 2025 marking the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Accord. 

As a participant of the Conference representing civil society, our Foundation has issued an official Statement on Modern-Day Antisemitism in the post-October 7 reality. Reflecting the nature of our Foundation, which is arts, culture and education, our Statement is illustrated by works from the special collection of works created as reflection to October 7th by Chairman of the Rogatchi Foundation Michael Rogatchi. His POST-HARMONY collection is dedicated to all victims of the October 7th massacre, their families, friends, and anyone whose life has been affected by this shift in humanity that we all have been destined to witness and to live through. 

We thought to share our Foundation’s statement as it addresses the aspects of Jewish life world-wide, concerning every single Jewish person, that has not been addressed as it should, yet. This is the time to act. 

The Rogatchi Foundation Statement on the occasion of the 

Conference addressing antisemitism in the OSCE region

               Helsinki, Finland, 10-11 February, 2025

Grateful Acknowledgement – The Rogatchi Foundation that participated in the Conference as a representative of a civil society organizations, expresses its gratitude to the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, its Human Rights Department and its ETYJ/OSCE Task Force for professional organizing an important and representative international forum which gathered about 200 high-level representatives from 57 country-members of the OSCE and relevant international organizations, in the opening of the series of international conferences marking Finland’s chairmanship of the OSCE in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Accord. 

Michael Rogatchi (C). Wind’s Cry. POST-HARMONY. 2024.

New Post October 7 Reality & Its Acute Challenges- The Rogatchi Foundation would like to emphasize that in a total surprise to the international community, unprecedented massive Hamas-led hideous terrorist attack in Israel led to a completely unexpected circumstances in the way and form of unprecedentedly strong and wide and escalating wave of open, violent antisemitism and incitement has set the world to the new reality, unknown for previous 79 years, the span of three generations, after the experience of  the Holocaust and the events of pre-during and post WWII. This reality with unprecedented, accelerated and consistent racist hatred has set the entire world in its new mode in the aspect of a negatively and dangerously altered social atmosphere, the post-October 7 reality. 

Massive Cancelling of Jews in Academia and Culture Worldwide – In this reality, practically every Jewish person, independently of her or his sex, age, profession, and views, got under permanent hostile psychological pressure, starting from wearing the symbols of Jewish belonging and visiting synagogue or Jewish culture-connected events, continuing with becoming an automatically selected subject of racially-based harassment, being threatened with intentional harm in some hospitals, and being massively ‘cancelled’ throughout the academia and cultural activities, including scientists in their work and attending conferences, writers and publishing of their books, artists and their participation in exhibitions and festivals, actors, directors in cinema and theatre, musicians in performing arts, researchers in presenting of their academic works, and practically everything else in various fields of intellectual and artistic activities. 

Michael Rogatchi (C). Silent Cry. POST-HARMONY. 2024.

Difficulties for Jewish Institutions Worldwide – In this new reality, which just 16 months ago seemed to be an absurd and impossibility, every single Jewish institution worldwide, would it be a museum, library, school, gallery, association, institute or any other body, is facing a multiply challenges of a negative character, serious and multiply racially-based refute. All these institutions have been facing a sharp decline in visitors, as people are afraid to come to the places where there could be disturbances, or worse (as it happened with a bomb-threat in the POLIN Museum in Warsaw which has been recognized as the best museum in the world by the UNESCO, and several Jewish museums in the USA), very serious and worsening lack of funds, worrying tendency of diminishing personnel as people simply afraid to continue to work for a Jewish institution in principle. Many plans and projects of Jewish institutions cannot be fulfilled under this new atmosphere of a total refusal in many countries and societies. In too many countries and cases the media prefer to refrain from coverage of the events in the Jewish-themed related events, which has far-stretching consequences in the societal attitude towards Jewish history and heritage as an essential part of general culture and civility. 

Psychological Challenges for Jewish People Worldwide – all mentioned abruptly appeared challenges have a devastating effect on Jewish people world-wide in both current psychological pressure and its long-run consequences. For practically all elderly Jewish people, many of whom had been exposed to the Holocaust and immediate post-Holocaust, the post-October 7th reality terrifies them with a new psychological phenomenon which can be defined as ‘re-living the Holocaust experience and its horror again’. This alone is an extremely alarming direct consequence of the post-October 7th reality which has not been addressed adequately as yet. At the same time, many young students of Jewish origin in Europe and worldwide are experiencing completely unjustified harassment only because of their origin. Such psychological stress which is frightening and locking personality in, when experienced at a young age, has very serious undermining a personality negative consequences for the entire life of many of those young people who are absolutely innocent but have massively become victims of a non-stop racial harassment. Practically every Jewish person of any age worldwide has become a victim of various hostilities and is under serious non-stop psychological pressure with far-reaching negative consequences.  

Michael Rogatchi (C). Longing . POST-HARMONY. 2011 – 2024.

Need of Urgent Decisive Multiply Counter-Hate Measures  – in the face of all mentioned above and many other ongoing phenomena in the Post October 7th reality, we believe that after the 16 months of non-stop unleashed wave of racial hatred against Jewish people worldwide, there is an acute need of urgent decisive multiply counter-hate measures at various levels of our societies, governmental, parliamentarian, public institutions, media, academia and culture which all together should become articulated and clear in real, not just verbal, process of urgent hate prevention. Antisemitism as such has to become officially and legally classified for what it is: racial hatred, with all legal consequences of the implementation of the racial hate prevention. Public and violent antisemitism has to be penalized in correspondence with criminal law without any delay. Racial antisemitic harassment has to be classified and penalized as an expression of racial hatred. The practice of cancelling Jewish people in academia, culture, medicine, science and any other field of human and public activities has to be classified as racially-based persecution and penalized accordingly. 

Only when those in our societies who are thriving in racial hatred will see and recognize the decisiveness of our political leaders and legislative institutions in firm restoration of humanity and civility, will the current unprecedented wave of allowed or tolerated racial hatred cease. There is no other way for securing the fundamental human rights for Jewish people worldwide, too many of whom have become the target of unprovoked racial hatred and antisemitism in its various modern forms. 

We are urging all corresponding authorities in our countries to implement all necessary measures swiftly, adequately and decisively. We are grateful to all of the institutions which are implementing much necessary measures to counter the post October 7th erupted wave of multi-faced open antisemitism world-wide, and express our Foundation’s readiness to assist and to cooperate with those authorities and institutions who are committed to the defense of decency, civility and humanity in our all life, and who would be interested in such productive and focused cooperation.

Michael Rogatchi (C). Lullaby. POST-HARMONY. 2020 – 2024.

The Rogatchi Foundation (C). Helsinki, Finland  – February 11, 2025 – OSCE Conference Addressing  Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region.