A delegation of the Action and Protection League (APL), Europe’s leading organisation for combating antisemitism, met with Olivér Várhelyi, the Hungarian EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, to discuss cooperation opportunities.
Secretary General of the Action and Protection League, Kálmán Szalai, and Foreign Affairs Director, Tamir Wertzberger, had a meeting with Olivier Várhelyi, Hungarian European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, to discuss cooperation opportunities and exact projects between APL, the leading European organisation in combating antisemitism, and the EU Commissioner.
During the meeting, which was of crucial importance, the APL delegation presented the organisation’s textbook review project, which involved experts from Hungarian Jewish communities in examining the inclusion of Jewish religion, culture, ancient and modern Israel, and the Holocaust in textbooks, and to make recommendations to editors and publishers on changes they consider necessary.
The Hungarian Ministry of Education was the first in Europe to take up this initiative, and recommendations have already been considered when publishing new textbooks. During the meeting, it was also mentioned that in Hungary, the national curriculum is re-evaluated every five years, the second cycle of which is currently underway.
Based on the experience of the project in Hungary, the APL delegation suggested that the European Commissioner should extend the program of national curriculum review to Ukraine, Turkey and Serbia, examining the image of Judaism in those national textbooks.
Mr Várhelyi expressed openness to the programme and APL’s recommendation of its extension, and the two parties discussed further possibilities for cooperation, such as the extension of APL’s research on antisemitism bias to countries neighbouring the European Union.
The fruitful discussion will be followed by identifying possible ways for cooperation in the near future.
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