Congres Juif Europeen

Informations générales

Since its establishment twenty years ago, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) has grown along with an enlarging European Union, and developed to confront the challenges and cultivate the opportunities presented to European Jews in the third millennium.

As the sole representative political body of democratically elected European Jewish communities throughout Europe, the EJC works with national governments, European Union institutions and the Council of Europe.

Based in Brussels, with offices in Paris and Strasbourg, the EJC federates and co-ordinates the 43 elected leaders of national Jewish communities in Europe, encompassing approximately 2.5 million Jews.

The President of the European Jewish Congress is elected every four years renewable by a “General Assembly” of Jewish community representatives and works in consortium with an elected “Executive” of community presidents.

The EJC gives a unified voice to Jewish communities around Europe, representing their common interests and concerns, but at the same time allowing smaller Jewish communities a wider platform to express their specific needs. It acts as an intimate forum between communities, where ideas can be easily exchanged, and internal elections and referenda decide future leadership, projects and goals.

There is an enormous diversity of Jewish communities within Europe, but they share common needs and interests, which in turn are the EJC’s primary objectives :

°To combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism through education, justice and security, in cooperation with governments and European institutions

°To promote a balanced European policy towards Israel and the Middle East, and to assist in the construction of a healthy dialogue between Europeans and Israelis

° To foster inter-religious dialogue and understanding.

° To ensure memory and education of the Shoah.

° To contribute to a democratic European society based on peace, understanding and tolerance.

° To assist in the revitalisation of the once rich Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe.