Opening Remarks
The 2nd International Conference on "Educating for Tolerance: The Case of Resurgent Anti-Semitism."
Paris, May 12, 2003
Bob Beauprez
Member of Congress
It is a true honor for me to address this very timely conference organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and UNESCO. The legacy of Simon Wiesenthal and his associates in fighting against anti-Semitism, exposing and bringing to justice some of the world’s most heinous war criminals is among the most noble humanitarian efforts of modern time. I want to thank UNESCO for their hospitality and bold leadership in hosting this event.
I am delighted to bring greetings and best wishes for a successful conference from the United States and my colleagues in the United States Congress particularly as the United States prepares to rejoin UNESCO later this year.
Director General Matsuura, High Commissioner de Mello, Minister Sarkozy, Minister Sharansky, and Rabbi Hier, it is a privilege to open this event with such esteemed gentlemen as yourselves.
Hate is not new. Neither is man’s struggle against it.
Hate lives in the darkest corners of our beings.
When hate is manifested, it warps and twists our nature so radically that nothing “humane” remains in humanity.
We find evidence of hatred driven by greed and jealousy as ancient as man himself.
Cane slew Able in Genesis.
As a result of his action, Cane was banished from his homeland.
Typically throughout history, hatred between individuals, families, or tribes was resolved by geographic relocation; the weaker one simply moved on, and avoidance limited hostilities.
That option has long since expired in today’s global society. Man has populated all habitable portions of the planet. Transportation allows us to be most anywhere withing hours. Armies and weaponry move with relative ease. Technology has made communication instantaneous, and even allows us to utilize the frontiers of outer space.
Distance is no longer a deterrent for hatred.
No longer are valleys and villages, regions or empires, populated by homogeneous people sharing ancestry, ethnicity, and faith.
Most of the regions and nations of the world are now inhabited by unharmonious populations that often share little more than a common location, and too often share a historically hostile past.
Sadly, no people have endured more hatred, been more displaced, more threatened for so very long than the Jews. From Egyptian slavery to the death camps of Hitler, and far too prevalent still today, the Jewish people have endured the most brutal totalitarian regimes, suffered extreme prejudice and hate, and paid the greatest sacrifice.
Anti-Semitism was wrong in the ancient world - it was wrong in the 20th century - and it is wrong today.
Whether, anti-Semitism is perpetrated on the streets of Jerusalem, here in Paris, or in Washington D.C., it is unacceptable and it must end. Whether anti-Semitism is carried out in a Nazi death camp, a terrorist bomb in an Israeli bus, or the subtlety of poison pens that write text books for children or so-called “news” stories in the media, it is all equally wrong because it promotes injustice and hatred.
Let our prayer today be that during our lifetime we may finally see peace come to the Jewish people.
Hatred and intolerance, of course, is not limited to the Jews. In today’s world, far too many examples exist.
In my own country - a nation founded by people that sought freedom from persecution - and a nation that proudly opens her borders to freedom seeking people of all the world - the mixing of so many different groups has brought tensions.
Not surprisingly, America in her still relatively brief history - serving as the world’s melting pot of cultures - has struggled with intense discrimination. It is too easy to find evidence of intolerance based upon race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or politics.
Recognizing the imperfection of humanity, however, I submit to you that the great test for any society is not so much the degree of intolerance within, but the action taken when confronted with the problem.
I am proud of my nation’s record. Our laws reflect our belief that "all men are created equal, and endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
As a nation we went to war with ourselves because some denied those rights to people with black skin and held them as slaves.
When our civil war ended, our great President Abraham Lincoln provided the right direction of the healing of our mighty differences by challenging that we move forward "With malice toward none, with charity toward all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
America, even though still a young nation, has stood firm for these unalienable rights for our own people and peoples of the world when totalitarian regimes denied or seriously threatened freedom.
We did it in World War I, and again in World War II helping save the fate of Europe and this great city of Paris.
America stood strong during the Cold War, and rejoiced with tears as the Berlin wall came down.
On Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist struck America in New York and in Washington. America suffered on her own soil the kind of heinous act of hatred that too much of the rest of the world has lived with for too long.
Embracing freedom and being a tolerant people does not require that you be weak or submissive. To the contrary, it requires courage and boldness. We have a duty to defend the liberty we cherish against tyrants of hate and terror.
Sir Winston Churchill understood this, and considered it an honorable call of history to fight mightily to remain free. Therefore, he said, men ought to "dread naught when duty calls...Stand erect and look the world in the face and do our duty without fear or favor."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, America has, once again, responded to those who would deny the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to freedom seeking people. And America will continue to stand firmly against those in the world that foster, promote, support, and export terror wherever they exist.
Terrorism, as we experience it today, is the latest evolution of evil. It is hatred and intolerance at its worst.
In our quest for freedom - our commitment to those unalienable rights - we must exercise great tolerance of others, for sure.
Tolerance comes with education and understanding. Again, I applaud all of you for your commitment to this cause by your attendance at this conference.
But, even tolerance has limits.
In our quest for a more peaceful, tolerant, free society, we must always be prepared to stand firmly against those that breed chaos and fear, and would deny us the freedoms we cherish.
The world we seek still requires some order to it. It is a world that respects the law - rather than being lawless. It is a world of right and wrong; of moral clarity.
In order to maintain the freedom cherished by a tolerant, open society, we must always be prepared to take action when freedom itself is challenged.
Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom is indivisible - there is no 's' on the end of it. You can erode freedom, diminish it, but you cannot divide it and choose to keep 'some freedoms' while giving up others."
Thus, we must ever be on watch for the cause of freedom, and willing to defend her.
Man by his very nature needs discipline and guidance. He is an imperfect being. Good and evil forever struggle for man's favor.
Throughout history various societies have crafted laws to maintain order. Notably, “order” too often is not consistent with "freedom."
Recognizing man’s need for guidance, we are told that around 1250 B.C. Moses received the Ten Commandments from God that prescribed a way that man might exist both in harmony with his Creator as well as with his fellow man.
These commandments provide some powerful insight as we open this conference and ponder the challenges of man’s struggles against hatred, greed, envy, jealousy.
Notably, the 10th Commandment admonishes "Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, thy neighbor's house, his field, his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's." That seems to pretty well sum it up, doesn't it?
If God were to deliver those same commandments today - written in the context of 2003 - He might say "Thou shalt not covet, nor deny, thy neighbor's freedom."
God’s words are truth. Man is forever challenged to seek and find it - sometimes in spite of our own nature.
May God bless each of you, and provide you guidance and wisdom in this noble quest.