January 26, 2024 — Vienna, Austria
For the sixteenth consecutive year, Rabbi Andrew Baker, American Jewish Committee (AJC) Director of International Jewish Affairs, has been appointed as Personal Representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chair-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism. Ian Borg, Foreign Minister of Malta and the 2024 OSCE Chair-in-Office, met with Baker in Vienna to discuss his work and welcome him to the chairmanship’s team.
Baker was first appointed to the post in 2009 and has been reappointed each year since then by the rotating chairmanship. The OSCE organization’s 57 members include the governments of all European and Eurasian countries, Canada, and the United States. The position was established in 2005.
“In the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks, we have seen an explosion of antisemitism throughout Europe and America,” said Baker. “The OSCE is a critical arena to focus government attention and action.”
For nearly three decades, Baker has worked intensively with governments and Jewish communities across Europe on programs and policies to confront antisemitism. He regularly visits European capitals to assess threats to Jewish communities and how to address them. He was intimately involved in a ground-breaking OSCE project to train law enforcement on monitoring and countering hate crimes.
“Especially in this current climate of surging antisemitism around the globe, it is vital that someone with Andy’s depth and breadth of experience in combating antisemitism occupies this key role at the OSCE,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “As we mark 20 years since the OSCE Berlin Conference and Declaration and take stock of the new challenges of antisemitism that are before us, it’s vital that all of us – the entire OSCE, individual member countries, civil societies, and Jewish communities around the globe – work together to combat the world’s oldest hate.”
AJC, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, maintains offices and posts in several OSCE member states. AJC Central Europe, dedicated to seven Central European countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia – opened in Warsaw in 2017. Other AJC offices and posts in Europe include Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Italy.
AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 offices across the United States, 14 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.
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