30 June 1994

Doc. 7116

1403-30/6/94-5-E

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

on Yiddish culture

presented by Mr ZINGERIS and others1

1.       In organising a symposium on Jewish Sephardi and European cultures in Toledo in 1987, the Assembly wished to launch a series of symposia throughout Europe on the different regional influences of the Jews on culture in Europe (Resolution 885).

2.       The political changes in central and eastern Europe now permit the examination of this question in what once were the principal areas of Yiddish culture but from which most traces have been wiped out.

3.       The 50th anniversary of the end of the second world war and the Council of Europe's plan of action for combating racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance provide an appropriate context.

4.       Means must now be found not only to record what remains of Yiddish culture, but to encourage its survival in secular as well as religious contexts, in language, literature, in theatre and in cinema, in humour and in art.

5.       The Assembly wishes to mobilise European support by organising a symposium on this subject in Vilnius in the course of 1995.

Signed:

Zingeris, Fischer, Müller, Böhm, Johnston, Ragnarsdóttir,

Vajda, de Puig, Upton, Landsbergis, Saudargas, Bratinka

1 ¹ This text only represents the views of the individual members who have signed it. It does not reflect a position adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.