European Jewish Association demands apology from EU over ‘antisemitic paper’ on Abramovich

The European Jewish Association is demanding an apology from the European Union and a retraction of a “clearly antisemitic paper” which discussed Russian Jewish oligarch Roman Abramovich. 

“Like most oligarchs, Abramovich is part of the Jewish Russian minority, which, as a result of the latent antisemitism in the Soviet Union and its exclusion from many public and security-related leadership functions, formed informal networks,” the EU Working Paper stated, according to Jerusalem Post.

“Abramovich, as the main shareholder of Omsk Bacon, found nothing wrong to benefit from the annual slaughter of 300,000 pigs. Yet he also followed Yeltsin’s and later Putin’s instructions to finance a Hadissic counter-organisation against the Russian Jewish Congress, which founded by Gusinsky in 1996 had in their view become too powerful as an internationally well-connected lobby,” the document continued.

Alexander Benjamin, Vice-Chairman (Advocacy) of the European Jewish Association, called on the EU to issue a “clear and public apology at the highest EU Institutional level.”

“Let us be clear at the outset, we do not seek to defend Mr. Abramovich or his business interests… However…his religious affiliation…is mentioned at all. That his stated religion is demeaned and judged…makes it antisemitic, pure and simple. All of this, we remind you, in an Official European Union Working Paper, not some populist or xenophobic rag, but an official EU document.”