Hearing of former Sen. George Voinovich’s (R-Ohio) passing brought back many memories of someone devoted to making the world a better place. As a representative of Jewish organizations, together with my colleagues in the community, I was privileged to work with him and his staff, primarily in the international fight against anti-Semitism.
{mosads}Despite his successful service as a mayor, governor and senator, Voinovich never succumbed to political expediency over principle. Having earned two hearing aids as a former construction worker, he was never too proud to hear everyone’s opinion and to act on whatever made sense. He never slacked off. He always focused on what would deliver impact. And, perhaps as a champion for our shared future, he always wore a Save the Children tie.
Fifteen years ago, as anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence swept Western Europe, he corralled a few of us because he wanted more than the empty words from some governments and even many of the Jewish organizations. He used a gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to press Jewish leaders to support an effort through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), first through its Parliamentary Assembly (PA), in which he and some fellow members of Congress sat alongside parliamentarians from 55 nations.
At the 2002 PA assembly in Berlin — meeting within the old Reichstag building — he and German Bundestag Member Gert Weisskirchen co-chaired a side event focusing on this issue, and with Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and (now-Sen.) Ben Cardin (D-Md.) pushed an unprecedented PA resolution focusing on the alarming trend and on promoting best practices to combat it. Largely thanks to Voinovich’s persistence, the following year the OSCE Permanent Council approved the first-ever government-level conference on combating anti-Semitism, in Vienna.
The year after that, 2004, saw the landmark Anti-Semitism Conference in Berlin, this time in the halls of the German Foreign Ministry, once home to the Nazi-era Reichsbank. World leaders, including Germany’s president and Secretary of State Colin Powell, attended and spoke. The resulting Berlin Declaration stands as a lasting statement and practical mechanism for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism throughout the OSCE region, including the United States and Canada.
For the first time following the Soviet collapse, the OSCE’s venerable Helsinki Process got some real teeth. For the first time ever, the Eastern and Western nations were equally obligated to enforce minority rights and protections. For an organization founded in no small part to secure the rights of Soviet Jews, Voinovich and his vocal colleagues compelled the OSCE — and many reluctant governments — to reclaim and operationalize that mantle of religious freedom.
As a result of our lobbying to get governments to adopt the declaration, and to implement it since — often spearheaded by Voinovich — Europe today is better prepared to respond to the waves of imported and homegrown terror and xenophobia. Though the challenges have increased, Jews and Muslims are still better protected and democracy is more secure.
All along, Voinovich insisted that incentivizing progress meant not only naming and shaming the enablers and perpetrators, but also recognizing and rewarding those who were doing the right thing. Have we done enough on that score? Probably not. Not when some community groups openly and routinely dismiss “the French” or “the U.N.” as irredeemably anti-Semitic. France and others have made significant progress in public statements and inter-agency coordination, and — despite largely rhetorical digs against Israel — the U.N. convenes special sessions on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, along with a year-round global Holocaust education mandate.
When he summoned one or more of us to his Hart Senate office, there was never a hint that it was for anything other than rolling up our sleeves to work on substance. He never brooked rivalry or showmanship among embassies, government agencies or nongovernmental organizations. I remember one snowstorm when some locals couldn’t get out of their homes for a morning consultation in his office. But the senator was there, ready to change the world.
And change the world he did. Rest in peace.
Franklin is CEO of Your Global Strategy, Inc.