The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association's co-founder Rafal Pankowski received this year’s Paul Ehrlich-Gunther K. Schwerin Human Rights Award.
The
Award was established in 1998 by the US-based Anti-Defamation League
to honour those who have fought antisemitism throughout Europe. The
award was presented by the ADL’s Director of European Affairs
Andrew Srulevitch during his visit to Poland on 6 February 2019.
In
the preceding months, Rafal Pankowski had been subjected to numerous
public attacks for his work in documenting and countering
antisemitism and xenophobia. Several days before the handing of the
award, government-controlled TV labelled the Warsaw-born researcher
as ‘a horrible person’, ‘belonging to the worst sort of Poles’
who ‘lives from a hatred of his own fatherland’. In response, the
Polish Human Rights Commissioner Adam Bodnar initiated a formal
complaint to the National Council of Radio and Television in protest
against the hateful language used on air.
In
2018, Rafal Pankowski (who is also a Sociology Professor at Warsaw's
Collegium Civitas) authored the widely discussed article detailing
the resurgence of antisemitic discourse in Polish media and politics,
published by the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. Over the years he
has cooperated with numerous think tanks and academic institutions
including, among others, Chatham House (London), the Institute of
Human Sciences (Vienna), and the Centre for European Studies at
Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok).
He
was recently included in the annual ‘J100’ list announced by
editors of The Algemeiner, a New York-based Jewish weekly. The list
recognizes one hundred people who made positive contribution to the
life of the Jewish communities in the last year and, besides
political figures, it has included actress Sharon Stone, the UK's
Prince William and Indian conductor Zubin Mehta, among others. The
‘NEVER AGAIN’ co-founder was commended for his role in opposing
antisemitism and racism.
The
‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent organization
established in Warsaw in 1996. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has campaigned
against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural
dialogue and human rights both in Poland and internationally.
More
information:
Rafal
Pankowski, ‘The Resurgence of Antisemitic Discourse in Poland’,
‘Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs’, July 2018: http://bit.do/eSdus
Brak komentarzy:
Prześlij komentarz