Confronting anti-Semitism: education for tolerance and understanding.

• Position: United Nations conference on confronting anti-Semitism

It was a day of reflection, introspection and education for tolerance at the first United Nations conference on confronting anti-Semitism, part of a series of seminars on "Unlearning Intolerance" organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) at UN Headquarters. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his opening statement: "The fight against anti-Semitism must be our fight, and Jews everywhere must feel that the United Nations is their home too."

Explaining that future seminars would deal with other specific groups against whom intolerance was directed in many parts of the world, including Muslims and migrants, Mr. Annan said that throughout history anti-Semitism had been a unique manifestation of hatred, intolerance and persecution. Its rise was a threat to people everywhere, he added. In fighting it, the world was fighting for the future of all humanity. Fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, noted in his keynote speech that anti-Semitism was the oldest collective bigotry in recorded history and said many in the room knew what the consequences of that had meant. "We were there. We saw our parents, we saw our friends die because of anti-Semitism."

The day-long programme was moderated by UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor and Raymond Sommereyns, Director of the Outreach Division, DPI. In the ensuing discussion, academics, educators, civil society leaders and members of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu groups spoke against anti-Semitism and intolerance in general.

The first discussion focused on "Perspectives of Anti-Semitism Today", with panelists Jacob Levy, founder of Gallup, Israel and co-Chairman of Trendum; James H. Charlesworth, George L. Collard Professor of New Testament, Languages and Literature, Princeton Theological Seminary; Melvyn Weiss, Israel Policy Forum, and founding partner, Milberg Weiss; Anne Bayefsky, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, and Adjunct Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School; and Mark Weitzman, Director, Task Force Against Hate, Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Mr. Levy, whose expertise lay with examining hate on the Internet, said that there was a borderless world on the Internet, where group hatred was becoming a world problem. He noted that the United Nations needed to adopt an anti-hatred index. Mr. Charlesworth said that the evolution of humankind had been marked by a lack of moral advances and a distinct propensity...