A new book on Jews, football and antisemitism in Poland has been launched at an international conference organized by the Anne Frank House at Amsterdam Arena, the stadium of Ajax Amsterdam.
The book was written by Dr Maciej Kozlowski, a distinguished historian and diplomat, and published by the Warsaw-based ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. Using the example of Cracovia, Poland’s oldest football club, it discusses the multicultural history of Polish football as well as contemporary issues of antisemitism and racism. The book is published in Polish with an English summary and is also expected to be translated into other languages.
The international conference ‘Tackling Antisemitism in Professional Football’, held on 11 and 12 June, brought together officials, researchers, fans and activists who discussed ways to combat the phenomenon of antisemitism in football and beyond. The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s representative Rafal Pankowski gave a keynote speech and Jacek Purski conducted a workshop on best practices in self-organizing against antisemitism in football.
The experiences of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the field of combating racism and promoting intercultural understanding in, and through, sports were also presented at a key stakeholders’ meeting on anti-discrimination in football held in Moscow on 4 June. Initiated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the discussion focused on the challenges of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
‘Football can be a great tool to build bridges between nations and cultures’ – said Dr Rafal Pankowski, a co-founder of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ and vice-chair of the FARE network. – ‘We are happy the legacy of our Euro 2012 RESPECT Diversity campaign can be inspiring to our partners, we are determined to continue our activity against racism, antisemitism and all types of discrimination.’
The other speakers at the Moscow event included, among others, Russian national team coach Fabio Capello, sports minister Vitaly Mutko, and Tokyo Sexwale, the South African chairman of Global Watch, a movement against racism in sports.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an anti-racist educational and monitoring organization established in 1996.
