Berlin, 10 May 2025 – WerteInitiative notes with great dismay that at its federal party conference the party Die Linke has officially adopted the so-called Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), thereby deliberately positioning itself against the internationally widely recognised IHRA working definition of antisemitism. This is a momentous political signal – not only to the Jewish community in Germany, but also to all those who are reliably committed to fighting antisemitism.
“The decision by Die Linke is a fatal political declaration against the globally proven definition of antisemitism, as recognised among others by the EU, the Bundesregierung, the Bundestag, numerous Bundesländer, the Kultusministerkonferenz and more than 1,000 institutions worldwide,” explains Elio Adler, chairman of the association. “WerteInitiative notes with great dismay that at its federal party conference this weekend the party Die Linke has officially adopted the so-called Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), thereby deliberately positioning itself against the internationally widely recognised IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
This is a momentous political signal – not only to the Jewish community in Germany, but also to all those who are reliably committed to fighting antisemitism.”
“By adopting the JDA, the party opens the door to anti-Israel agitation under the cloak of criticism – and thereby evades its responsibility to protect Jewish life and Jewish perspectives effectively.”
Among Jewish communities, associations and antisemitism researchers worldwide, the Jerusalem Declaration is regarded as unsuitable and as playing down the problem, because it obscures or relativises central forms of Israel-related antisemitism which pose a considerable threat in the reality of Jewish people’s lives.
“Anyone who wants to combat every form of antisemitism effectively must first be able to name it clearly. Die Linke instead chooses the path of political instrumentalisation and tramples on the consensus of Jewish civil society,” Adler continues. “We are drawing the necessary conclusions from this.”
Under these circumstances no cooperation whatsoever with the party Die Linke is possible for our association.
At the same time we call on all Jewish and non-Jewish partners to examine this development critically and, for their part, to reconsider cooperation with political forces that do not clearly and in solidarity name and combat every form of antisemitism.
Jewish life in Germany needs security, respect and political clarity – not double standards, not ideological relativisations.
