(Friday, November 21, 2025) – Today and tomorrow, the City of Paris is hosting with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) the European Summit of Mayors Against Antisemitism, at a time when fundamental freedoms, democratic cohesion, and the security of Jewish communities are being weakened across the continent.
The event was attended by French Government Ministers, senior European officials, ambassadors and over 100 mayors and municipal leaders from more than 130 cities across 30 European nations
“We are facing political forces, in France, from the far left, that have instrumentalized the violence being caused, the suffering of the Israeli people, to mislead the French population, to give a kind of foreign legitimacy to antisemitism, and to bring this conflict into our society for political gain,” said French Minister Delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad. “And this is something we have to constantly fight with the same democratic, republican, universal values that bind us together.”
Minister Haddad also spoke out about the lack of oversight across Europe in funding anti-Semitic NGOs.
“I want to be very clear about an initiative I launched recently with some of my colleagues at the European Council which is that every single cent of the European Commission needs to be accounted for,” said Minister Haddad at the opening of the Summit. “When we have money going to NGOs or associations that can be tied, in any way, to anti-Semitic speech then of course we have to check the nature of that relationship. Today, we are still in a situation with too much opacity and too little control over the funding that comes from the European Union to NGOs or organizations.”
“So, we are calling on European institutions, and France is very upfront and forceful about this, to strengthen their oversight and make it very clear that no cent of European money can go to organizations that do not respect European values.”
The event was co-organized with the CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, the AEPJ, and the European Jewish Congress (EJC), the Summit brought together the participants to develop a common European strategy.
“A little more than a year ago, my grandfather passed away. He was a survivor of the Holocaust. He saw his father, my great-grandfather, sent to the gas chambers, and when he died, I felt ashamed,” said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa. “I felt ashamed to look him in the eyes, as a Jew and as a European citizen, that we didn’t keep our promise of ‘Never Again’, because it looks like it has started happening again.”
“I felt ashamed that he had to witness 1,200 Jews murdered on October 7, that Holocaust survivors lived to see such horror again, that six months before he died he saw our great-grandmother’s grave in Belgium defaced with swastikas, that he saw soldiers guarding our synagogues and schools, that my sister hid her Jewish symbols out of fear on the streets of Brussels, and that I spent his final year in bomb shelters with my three children. But I also have hope, hope inspired by this room, by the leaders who stand up and show up, and I want to be able to tell my grandparents that we fixed this, and that Jews can once again live in peace in Europe and around the world.”
CAM Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban said. “As this hatred increases in scope and scale, mayors and other municipal leaders are uniquely positioned to address it on the streets of your cities, where it most directly impacts your Jewish residents. You are here because of your shared commitment to confronting and preventing antisemitism in all its modern-day forms.”
CRIF President Yonathan Arfi said, “By being here, we are making a promise, the promise to fight antisemitism wherever it appears and in whatever form it takes. Whether it hides behind Islamist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, or anti-Zionist discourse, we will stand united to silence it.”
Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, said, “We see marches around the world denying Israel’s right to exist, glorifying terrorists, and presenting acts of terrorism as resistance. This is not criticism of Israel or freedom of speech. It is antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life Katharina von Schnurbein was presented with CAM’s Global Leadership Award, in recognition of her dedicated work over the past decade to strengthen European policies and initiatives to secure and nurture Jewish life across the continent, including the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life.
“Antisemitism is toxic to our society, and so we need to address it,” von Schnurbein said. “No form of antisemitism should go unchecked. The action locally is key.”
Additional speakers included French Minister Delegate for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination Aurore Bergé, French Ambassador at-Large for Human Rights Isabelle Rome, CAM Global Advisory Board Chair Natan Sharansky, Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka, President of the Paris Shoah Memorial Baron Eric de Rothschild, Mayor Paris Center Ariel Weil, President of the Hessian State Court of Auditors and Hessian State Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight Against Antisemitism Uwe Becker, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini, and Deputy Mayor of Paris in Charge of Europe, International Affairs and Francophonie Arnaud Ngatcha, among others.
