Press Release - 09.28.2004

 

NCSJ’s Mark Levin Named to U.S. Delegation at OSCE Annual Meeting

Contact: Shai Franklin, NCSJ (202-898-2500)

Mark B. Levin, Executive Director of NCSJ, has been named a Public Member of the official U.S. Delegation to the annual review conference of European human rights. The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will take place October 4-15 in Warsaw. Mr. Levin will represent the United States in discussions with other delegations from the 55-member organization, and will address the delegations in the session on combating anti-Semitism and intolerance.

“I am very honored to have been selected for this year’s meeting,” Mr. Levin said. “My first participation in the Helsinki Process was over 20 years ago, and OSCE remains as relevant today in the new Europe still haunted by old demons like anti-Semitism.” Mr. Levin most recently served as a Public Member to the first-ever OSCE Conference on Anti-Semitism in Vienna, in 2003, and as a Public Advisor to last April’s follow-up conference in Berlin.

“The Human Dimension meetings are the annual opportunity to review how the OSCE as an institution and how the individual countries are all fulfilling their commitments on a variety of human rights and democracy issues,” Mr. Levin noted. “This is only the second year that anti-Semitism will be addressed there as a unique phenomenon with specific strategies to combat it. My emphasis in Warsaw will be on pushing European governments to provide the data on hate crimes and report on their efforts to promote tolerance, as well as getting the OSCE’s own machinery to solicit and collect the information.” As a member of the U.S. delegation, Mr. Levin will also be advocating for the appointment of a special OSCE representative on anti-Semitism who can harmonize the OSCE efforts, and for promoting a follow-up anti-Semitism conference next year in Spain.

Dr. Robert J. Meth, Chairman of NCSJ, recalled, “The OSCE as an institution embodies the Helsinki Process, the series of agreements worked out between the Soviet bloc and the West in the 1970s and ’80s, which grew out of and helped advance the cause of Soviet Jewish and other human rights dissidents. With a very different Europe today, and a very different Russia, NCSJ is proud to apply its Helsinki experience to facing new challenges, including the return of classic anti-Semitism and the rise of new forms.”

Mr. Levin will join former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Larry Napper, who heads this year’s delegation, as well as U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Stephan Minikes and senior State Department officials. Major organizations such as the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith International will be participating in their capacity as non-governmental organizations.

“NCSJ is one of a small group of organizations that have been instrumental in supporting this new and overdue focus of OSCE’s work,” Joel M. Schindler, President of NCSJ, stated. “Mark Levin’s selection this year is a natural reflection of the involvement by NCSJ and our fellow organizations.”

NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia – a voluntary, non-profit agency created in 1971 – is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized American Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union. NCSJ comprises nearly 50 national organizations and over 300 local federations, community councils and committees across the United States. Through this extensive network, NCSJ mobilizes the resources, energies and talents of millions of U.S. citizens, and also represents the American Jewish community in dealings with similar national groups abroad, and at international fora.

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See also:
JTA coverage
NCSJ Addresses Warsaw 2003 HDIM
NCSJ's Levin at Vienna 2003 Conference on Anti-Semitism
NCSJ's Meth at Vienna 2003 Conference on Anti-Semitism