Dear Sisters, dear Brothers,

The last six months have again been difficult for us as we continue to face anti-Semitism in its twenty first century guise - the attempts of our enemies to delegitimize the State of Israel. As ever we have to remain united, defend our legitimate rights to self defence and confront those who seek to destroy us...

For me, it was a pleasure to record several of our Lodges celebrating important anniversaries including the Frankfurt Schönstadt Lodge that is now 120 years old and the First Lodge of England that celebrated its 100th anniversary, both of which events I attended.

The Henri Dunant Lodge in Geneva and the Emile Zola Lodge in Marseille both celebrated their 60th anniversary, the Edmond Fleg Lodge in Lausanne its 35th anniversary and the Lodge in Budapest its 20th. I was delighted to attend the installation the new President of the Anna e Nathan Cassuto Lodge in Milan who elected, for the first time in their history, a woman to lead the Lodge through the next two years.

Our Humanitarian Aid programme continues helping the needy in Eastern Europe and essentially in Ukraine under the joint chairmanship of Alex Faiman and Erika van Gelder responsible for the B’nai B’rith Europe Commission for Central & Eastern Europe.

In the humanitarian aid context, I again want to thank all of you for your generosity in answering our appeal to help the victims of the January earthquake that devastated Haiti. You will have read, in our latest “Newsletter” about the programme B’nai B’rith Europe will support with the funds raised.

Culture and education are one of our important objectives, and I am pleased to say that the MAKOR project is widely developing in Central and Eastern Europe thanks to the continuous work of Ralph Weill so well assisted by Davor Salom.

For the 11th year, the European Day of Jewish Culture will take place this year on Sunday September 5th under the theme “Art & Judaism”. Over 25 countries throughout Europe are participating in this important event that opens Jewish sites to more and more visitors each year. It is important for our Lodges to actively participate in this activity that, through Jewish culture, fights against anti-Semitism in showing the non Jewish world its implication throughout the centuries.

As I informed you previously, we will shortly be hiring a new professional who will develop our work  at the E.U. in partnership with B’nai B’rith International and will be operating from our office in Brussels. We are also now working on a booklet defending the claim of the Jewish People to the city of Jerusalem and this project is being lead by David Lévy-Bentolila.

Last but not least, the for the 4th Young Jewish Adult Forum will take place this year in November in Zürich, in cooperation with the AKL Lodge. This very successful event, lead by John Reeves, who is responsible for Youth in our Executive Committee, has already brought in a number of new young members in various Lodges throughout Europe, thereby demonstrating how B’nai B’rith can and must renew itself for the next generation.

Our 6th B’nai B’rith Europe Convention will take place from May 8th to May 11th 2011 in Brussels, the capital of Europe. An exciting programme is being prepared and full details will be announced early in 2011.  I hope to see many of you join us so that together we can plan ahead to build our organisation for the future in Harmony and Brotherly Love.

I wish you all an enjoyable and restful summer break.

Graham Weinberg,  President, B'nai B'rith Europe
July 2010