The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) paid a singular tribute to the Yiddish language and culture at its 24th biennial session here Friday.
The traditionally anti-Israel world body also elected Israel to two important committees – for the first time in the organization’s stormy history — and deferred two virulently anti-Israel resolutions introduced by the Arab states.
The 158-member General Conference is UNESCO’s equivalent of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The resolution on Yiddish called for the preservation of the language and its cultural heritage, and asked the director general to tap extra-budgetary sources for the project.
The resolution cites the “outstanding role and the great and unique value of the Yiddish language and culture, which constitute a cultural heritage that is threatened with oblivion after being doomed to annihilation.”
Specifically, the director general was asked to “encourage the translation of (Yiddish) masterpieces of literature and poetry, especially from the period of the Shoah (Holocaust), to encourage and subsidize the publication of a dictionary of the Yiddish language, a language formerly spoken by 10 million men and women, and to organize a meeting of experts to put forward suggestions regarding the conservation and spread of the linguistic and literary heritage and to contribute to the training of (Yiddish) experts.”
It was drafted by Sam hoffenberg, the permanent representative of B’nai B’rith to UNESCO, where B’nai B’rith has the status of a non-governmental organization.
Delegates and UNESCO officials stressed that Friday’s developments were not linked to the upcoming change of leadership. Federico Mayor Zaragoza of Spain has been elected director general, succeeding Mukhtar Amadou M’Bow of Senegal, whose administration was characterized by strong anti-Israel and anti-Western bias.
Zaragoza will not take office until the end of the current session. But there was clearly a change of climate here. The Arab delegates opposed the resolution on Yiddish and prevented Hoffenberg of B’nai B’rith from introducing it at the penum. West Germany did the honors, joined later by 65 delegations from Europe and Irael.
The vote was by a show of hands. There was no official count, but apparently only the Arab delegations were opposed.
VOTES FOR ISRAEL
In other business, Israel was elected to the key 25-member Committee for Headquarters Affairs, which oversees UNESCO’s budgetary and administrative activities. And the chief Israeli delegate, Ambassador Yossef Amihud, was elected to the committee for sports and physical education.
Israel also managed to have toned down two Arab-sponsored resolutions on Jerusalem and the state of education in the administered territories. Both had been adopted by various sub-committees, but were deferred at the request of West European delegations.
In fact, the latter issued a joint declaration after Friday’s session paying tribute to “the results achieved (in Jerusalem) in recent years in cooperation with the authorities of the State of Israel.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
