The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue organization, applauds U.S. Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) for introducing the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 (S.2292), a bill that would require the State Department to submit an annual report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee on acts of anti-Semitism worldwide.

A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on European Affairs, Senator Voinovich has long been an outspoken leader against anti-Semitism. At a congressional hearing held Wednesday on the alarming rise of anti-Semitism throughout the world, Senator Voinovich introduced this legislation as an important and timely step in advance of the upcoming Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Conference on anti-Semitism that will take place on April 28-29 in Berlin. The OSCE is the largest regional security organization in the world with fifty-five participating states in Europe, Central Asia, and North America. The aim of the Conference is to ensure that the international community will pay close attention to the problem of anti-Semitism and be vigilant in fighting it.

Betty Ehrenberg, Director of International and Communal Affairs for the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, said “We praise Senator Voinovich for introducing the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, S.2292 that calls on governments to not only condemn anti-Semitism but to also introduce concrete mechanisms to help defeat it. Senator Voinovich has done much to call governments’ attention to the dismaying rise of anti-Semitism in Europe both in the U.S. Senate and in meetings of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly”.

“We are looking forward to Senator Voinovich’s continued leadership at the OCSE Conference on Anti-Semitism in Berlin”, added Ehrenberg, who will be a member of the United States delegation to the Conference. “Our goal will be to make sure that countries in the OSCE region will not only condemn anti-Semitism, but will also take strong measures to counteract it, such as creating and enforcing laws that will protect the religious freedoms of the Jews and actively promoting anti-bias education. We ask all our members to contact Senators and urge them to support and help pass S.2292, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004”.