Conference of European Rabbis Annual Review 2017-2018 (5777-5778) 2 www.rabbiscer.org From Dr. Boris Mints Today we are summing up the results of the past year and trying to take a look into the future of our people living in Europe and of course beyond its borders, because the world is becoming smaller and everything within it is interconnected now. To our great regret, we must state that 10 years ago we could not imagine that at the highest political and social level, for example at the Munich security conference, the following problems could be under discussion: "whether Jews have a future in Europe" or "how to ensure the security of Jewish communities around the world". For the first time since World War II, a sense of fear has emerged in our communities. We are facing a dilemma, will we be able to return the happiness of normal life to our homes, or has the time come for another Exodus? We are well aware of the history of our people. We have thousands of examples from our history when we had to leave the habitual places and start everything all over again somewhere where we were thrown by fate. In the middle of the 20th century it seemed like it had ended, but today, at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, we see that it has not. No matter what, the Conference of European Rabbis will continue its multifaceted activities, because we are convinced that there are still many opportunities to correct the situation. We have partners, leaders of public opinion, heads of state institutions, politicians who consistently and actively support us. We still have a very long way to achieve our task in preserving the Jewish tradition, the Jewish way of life in our communities, and we will do our best to ensure the completion of the goal. D R . B O R I S M I N T S C H A I R M A N , B O A R D O F P A T R O N S Finally, I’d like to thank our professional staff, our rabbinical director Rabbi Moshe Lebel, the Secretary Rabbi Aaron Baskin, my Chief of Staff Mr. Gady Gronich, Director of the Board of Patrons Ms. Shorena Mikava and the Coordinator of the CER Prize Franciska Kosman. Finally, thanks to our team of media and government advisors: Shimon Cohen, Aaron Bass, Oliver Rolofs, Olga Esaulova, Moshe Friedman, Ronen Tzur and Drew Salisbury as well as our photographer Eli Itkin. C H I E F R A B B I P I N C H A S G O L D S C H M I D T P R E S I D E N T