The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) announced on Thursday, June 12th, that it had to cancel its upcoming meeting in Sarajevo after a Bosnian minister publicly criticised the event and the hotel suddenly cancelled their booking.
The conference was meant to focus on important challenges facing Jewish communities across Europe, especially the issue of religious freedom. “Shockingly, the hotel has suddenly cancelled on us,” said CER president Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt in a statement.
The cancellation happened soon after Adnan Delic, Bosnia’s minister of labor and social policy in the Muslim-Croat federation, published an open letter demanding the event be called off. According to Goldschmidt, no other Bosnian officials contacted the organisation.
“We have been made unwelcome and this last-minute, ministerial boycott of Jewish European citizens, dedicated purely to promoting Jewish life in Europe and furthering dialogue and democracy across the continent, is disgraceful,” Goldschmidt stated.
Delic claimed the conference was “unacceptable and morally offensive,” accusing it of “sending support” to Israel in its war with Hamas. He also accused Israel of “committing genocide against the innocent civilian population in Gaza.”
The CER’s cancellation highlights growing concerns about political pressure and intolerance toward Jewish events in Europe.
