The Joint Federal and State Commission to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish life started its work on 18 September 2019. (Larger version opens in new window) Source: Felix Beckel/BMI The members of the Joint Federal and State Commission to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish life, September 2019.

The federal states are responsible for around 80 percent of measures to combat antisemitism. Along with education, prevention and forms of intervention at schools and universities – including university research projects – most police prevention work, matters of law enforcement and matters related to religion and religious organisations are the responsibility of the federal states. This is why it is very important for cooperation with the federal states to be on a permanent footing. Working together and sharing ideas and experience regarding measures, plans and strategies for preventing and fighting antisemitism is essential.

The Joint Federal and State Commission to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish life (BLK) started work on 18 September 2019. The federal states are represented in the joint commission by their antisemitism commissioners. The joint commission is co-chaired by Dr Klein and the commissioner from the federal state which holds the current chair in the conference of minister-presidents.

The joint commission was created as a result of the Bundestag resolution of 18 January 2018 calling for decisive action to combat antisemitism (Bundestag printed paper 19/444 Antisemitismus entschlossen bekämpfen). The Federal Chancellor and the heads of the federal state governments agreed unanimously on 6 June 2019 to establish the joint commission. According to its statutes, the joint commission’s tasks include the following:

• sharing information with each other on federal and state-level measures;
• increasing awareness of antisemitism in society and encouraging discussion of this phenomenon;
• making recommendations for preventing and fighting antisemitism and for protecting Jewish life;
• helping to remember the Shoah by making recommendations and promoting the work of remembrance and commemoration;
• suggesting projects of interregional significance to prevent and fight antisemitism and protect Jewish life, and preparing such projects together as appropriate;
• maintaining an international exchange of information and ideas for fighting antisemitism.

To date, 15 federal states have established the role of antisemitism commissioner (often in conjunction with the role of commissioner for Jewish life) or have announced their intention to do so.