26 April 2021
The European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) welcomes the decision of LYMEC (the pan-European and official youth wing of the European liberal Party) made at the LYMEC Spring Conference on April 24th, 2021, to pass a motion on combating antisemitism which includes the adoption of the non-legally binding International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
The European Liberal Youth, abbreviated as LYMEC, is the youth organisation of the ALDE Party and the Renew Europe parliamentary group in the European Parliament. Consisting of about 200,000 members from 62 organisations in 40 countries. This is a vital step in the fight against antisemitism!
EUJS is delighted that such a step forward was decided upon and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate LYMEC on its adoption of both the motion and the IHRA definition.
Over the past weeks and months, EUJS has been in regular contact with LYMEC and some of its member organisations concerning the drafting and proposal of the motion on “Combating Antisemitism in Europe”. We want to especially thank “Junge Liberale”, the German affiliate of LYMEC, for their leadership on the issue, in drafting and proposing the resolution, it was a pleasure to work with “Junge Liberale” on the issue. We also want to thank the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD) for their contribution.
LYMEC is following both the “European Democrat Students (EDS)” and the “Global Student Forum” as another central youth framework in having adopted the IHRA working definition this year at EUJS’ urging, after the European Youth Forum and the European Student’s Union adopted such motions, proposed by EUJS, earlier, and we sincerely hope that other youth parties and organisations will follow their example in this regard, in adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
Going forward, EUJS would like to note that the adoption of the IHRA definition represents simply a first step in the process and so we plan to be in regular contact with our contacts at LYMEC to ensure that the adoption is carried out and acted upon.
