Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico emphasized the importance of preserving historical Jewish sites in his country, including synagogues and cemeteries, "as they are an integral part of the country's heritage", during a meeting last Wednesday with a delegation of the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) in Bratislava.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Fico praised the major contribution of Slovakian Jews to the county's culture and heritage. The delegation thanked him for his major role in initiating years ago the "Slovakian Jewish Holocaust Memorial day" which is being marked annually throughout the country on September 9.
The Jewish delegation also met with the President of Slovakia, Ivan Gašparovič who stressed the importance of the “uncompromising war against intolerance” both in Slovakia and throughout the world and described the meeting as "the beginning of a new cooperation between Slovakia and European Jewry.”
The delegation emphasized that anti-Semitism in Slovakia is "almost non existent" as a result of the President's firm voice against it and his commitment to the safety and prosperity of Slovakian Jews.
Around 2,000 Jews live in Slovakia, the majority of them in Bratislava and in Kosice.
The Slovakian President also hailed his country's “great relationship” with the state of Israel. "I know that senior Israeli diplomats are competing intensely to be stationed in Bratislava as Israel's ambassador to Slovakia,” he noted.
The Jewish delegation included Rabbis Jacob Biderman of Vienna and Baruch Oberlander of Budapest, both EJA board members, Rabbi Baruch Mayers, Chief Rabbi of Slovakia, Ronny Bruckner, EJA Vice President, Alexander Levin, President of the Kiev Jewish community and of the World Forum of Russian Jewry, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director General of the European Jewish Association and of the RCE and Rintel, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Slovakia.