Major Jewish groups in Europe and beyond on Monday publicly defended Katharina von Schnurbein—the point person representing the European Union for the fight against antisemitism—after lawmakers from the bloc’s legislative arm criticized her, allegedly for arguing against punishing Israel with sanctions.
It s “deeply troubling” to see Katharina von Schnurbein, the E.U.’s coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, “accused of ‘bias’ simply because she refuses to trivialize or ignore threats against Jews,” wrote the European Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Conference of European Rabbis in a joint open letter they addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
The defense of Schnurbein, who in 2015 became the first person to serve in her position, followed an earlier letter against her filed by 26 left-wing lawmakers from the European Parliament. The co-signatories argued that von Schnurbein had exceeded her institutional authority by attempting to persuade E.U. member state representatives at a closed meeting against imposing sanctions that would affect Israel’s standing in the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Von Schnurbein declined to be interviewed by JNS on this matter and referred JNS to her office’s spokesperson. He did not reply by press time to a request for comment.
“To attack her for defending Jewish dignity and security is, in effect, to challenge the European Union’s own credibility in combating antisemitism,” added the cosignatories in the letter defending von Schnurbein.
Other Jewish organizations that signed the letter included the World Jewish Congress, Combat Antisemitism Movement, B’nai B’rith International, European Leadership Network (ELNET) and European Union for Progressive Judaism. Jewish groups from most E.U. countries also signed on.
“In all her work, she has listened to the lived realities of Jewish communities, including the tsunami of Israel-related antisemitism that has swept throughout Europe and the world since Oct. 7, 2023, which she has been steadfast in addressing,” read the letter’s only reference to Israel.
The document did not address the claims that von Schnurbein should stay away from E.U.-Israel relations.
The Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA), which has had tense relations with the European Jewish Congress and was not among the open letter’s signatories, nonetheless supports its content.
“We at the European Jewish Association stand firmly with her,” a spokesperson for the organization wrote in a statement Monday. “We urge the European Commission to reject these political attacks and to reaffirm Katharina von Schnurbein’s mandate.”
Von Schnurbein “deserves our gratitude. She deserves our support,” the statement continued.
EJA noted that it spoke up for von Schnurbein in a July 18 statement following the publication of the leaks that had her advocating for Israel.
Von Schnurbein “has come under heavy criticism for pointing out a reality that Jewish communities across Europe know all too well: that much of the hatred directed at Israel today is not about politics—it is about Jews,” EJA wrote in the July 18 statement.
Israel was connected to von Schnurbein’s first encounter with antisemitism, she said in a 2018 interview with Israel’s Hamodia newspaper.
“I recall an incident from my childhood when my mother hung an Israeli flag out the window on the eve before we were to receive Israeli guests,” she said in the interview. “The next morning, we discovered a huge swastika sprayed on the street,” which her mother covered up ahead of the visit to the family’s hometown in Bavaria, Germany.
“Clearly antisemitism hides behind anti-Zionism,” von Schnurbein said in 2017, shortly before French President Emmanuel Macron became the first head of state of any continental European power to argue the same.
