On April 4th, 2024, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Cătălin Predoiu, had a meeting with Mrs. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy of the State Department for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, which was also attended by HE Mrs. Kathleen Kavalec, the USA Ambassador to Bucharest.
The dialogue focused on topics related to the efforts and general vision of the MIA in the line of preventing and combating anti-Semitism, as well as the institution’s policies and priorities in the field.
The Minister of Internal Affairs emphasized the importance given to the subject, thus evoking the strategic documents in the field, namely the National Strategy for the prevention and combating of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech related to the period 2021-2023, as well as the one for the period 2024-2027.
Based on the new strategy, the MIA structures will carry out activities regarding the assessment of the level of threat represented by anti-Semitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech, they will carry out professional training activities to facilitate the understanding of the need to combat anti-Semitism and will continue the efforts to digitize the archives on the history of the Jews and the Roma people.
Minister Predoiu reiterated the importance given to the training of the institution’s staff in terms of combating anti-Semitism, recalling the training programs carried out within the own educational institutions, including in collaboration with the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania „Elie Wiesel” and the National Council for Combating Discrimination.
At the same time, for the promotion of Holocaust education, the MIA works very well with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, in the broader context of the study of the Holocaust and the history of the Jewish community.
There were also highlighted the operative measures taken by the MIA to ensure security and to deter potential anti-Semitic acts on the national territory, as well as to prevent acts of hooliganism or vandalism on places of worship and those associated with the Jewish community.
