Italy Reappoints AJC's Andrew Baker to Key OSCE Post on Anti-Semitism

NEW YORK, Jan. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the tenth consecutive year, Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's director of International Jewish Affairs, will serve as Personal Representative on Combating Anti-Semitism  for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

This significant, high-level position was created by the OSCE in 2005. Baker was first appointed to the post in 2009, and has been reappointed each year since then by the rotating chairmanship. The OSCE organization's 57 members include the governments of all European and Eurasia countries, Canada and the United States.

Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who assumed the post of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office this month, thanked Baker for his willingness to continue to serve as the point person on combating anti-Semitism.

The first major event of the Italian chairmanship will be a high-level conference in Rome on January 29. AJC CEO David Harris was invited by Minister Alfano to address (by video) The International Conference on the Responsibility of States, Institutions and Individuals in the Fight against Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Area. Rabbi Baker, together with Minister Alfano, will speak at the closing session of the daylong conference.

"I am grateful to Minister Alfano for reappointing me to this critical position, which allows me to continue to focus OSCE efforts on combating anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Baker. "The conference is just one indication that Italy, as the new chair of the OSCE, will make anti-Semitism a priority."

Baker has worked intensively for more than 20 years with governments and Jewish communities across Europe on programs and policies to confront anti-Semitism. He regularly visits European capitals to assess threats to Jewish communities and how to deal with them. In that spirit, he was intimately involved in a ground-breaking OSCE project to train law enforcement on monitoring and countering hate crimes.

"OSCE efforts are critical to combat the relentless cancer of anti-Semitism, which, if left unchecked, will metastasize," said Harris. "While the organization may not be a household word to some in the U.S., it is the 'largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization in the world,' and 'promotion of human rights' is at the center of its mandate. This puts my colleague, Andy Baker, in an absolutely unique position in his ability to interact with the entire OSCE, individual member countries, civil societies, and Jewish communities. We are immensely proud of this crucial role he plays in combatting anti-Semitism, especially on the European continent."

AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization, with headquarters in the U.S., maintains offices in several OSCE member states, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Poland in Europe.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee