Hikind Wants To Extend Refugee Status To Jews...In Western Europe

Almost sounds like a joke.
Almost.

Following a recent fact-finding trip to Europe, a Democrat who represents Boro Park in the state Assembly, Dov Hikind, said yesterday he is convinced that anti-Semitism has made life intolerable for Jews in England, France, Germany, and Belgium.

At a dinner tonight organized by the New York Association for New Americans, he said he plans to call on President Bush to accord special refugee status to Western European Jews.

While Western European Jews would likely fail to qualify as persecuted refugees under State Department standards, America has made rare exceptions for certain groups in the past, including Jews and other religious minorities in the former Soviet Union who qualified as refugees under the 1989 Lautenberg Amendment. Mr. Hikind wants this treatment extended to Western European Jews.

I don't know if Hikind is actually serious about extending that kind of status or if he merely sees this proposal as a way to give more exposure to the issue and create more discussion of the problem.

The fact that we are talking about Jews in Western Europe--in Germany, France, and England--and not Eastern European Jews is mind-boggling when you think about it.

When the situation of Jews in England requires more attention than their situation in Poland, we have a major problem.

[Hat tip: The Anchoress]

Technorati Tag: Jews and Anti-Semitism.