Commission Chair to Testify on Anti-Semitism in Europe

Jul 31, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2002

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WHAT: Felice D. Gaer, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, will testify at a briefing of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on "Anti-Semitism in Europe."

WHEN: Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: Room 2255, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.

BACKGROUND: In the past year a wave of anti-Semitic incidents has occurred across Europe. Individuals have been attacked, places of worship and cemeteries vandalized or firebombed, and anti-Semitic signs posted with booby-traps to injure those who dismantle them. The Commission has publicly deplored acts of anti-Semitism in Belgium and France and continues to closely monitor violations of religious freedom on the continent as a whole.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

 

Felice D. Gaer, Chair

 

  • Michael K. Young, Vice Chair Firuz KazemzadehRichard D. LandBishop William Francis MurphyLeila Nadya SadatNina SheaThe Hon. Charles R. StithThe Hon. Shirin Tahir-KheliTad Stahnke, Acting Executive Director