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A keeper of memories
Poland honors Kantor for Holocaust-related work.
V'iatchcslav (Moshe) Kantor, a leader of Russian and European Jewish communities, was awarded the Ofiicer's Cross of tlie Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland on Nov. 8 in a London ceremony.
The award is one of Poland's liighest honors and was presented by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Kantor was praised for his "exceptional support for Polish-Jewish reconciliation and help in preserving the memory of the Holocaust for future generations."
Kantor is chairman of the board of governors of the European Jewish Congress and president of the Worid Holocaust Fonim Foundation. He was the principal organizer of the Let My People Live International Forum, held in Krakow earlier this year to commemorate the 60tli anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The forum also attempted to achieve a worid-widc commitment to Holocaust re-membrance through the launch of the European Education Program for Teachers on the Holocaust and its Lessons, and participants also established a Worid Holocaust Forum - a standing international body that will convene every few years in order to assess achievements in Holocaust remembrance and education.
It was for this body of work and for his leadership of European Jewry that the Polish medal was awarded to Kantor, the only non-Pole to receive the commendation.
"The Holocaust was, without question, an earthquake in regards to human morals. Tlie lowest point in the human history of civilization," Kantor said after receiving the decoration. "If we want to safeguard the worid, if we want to save humanity from itself and to create a better and safer worid for our children, we must do all in our power to remember and learn. We must teach about the Holocaust and emphasize its lessons, and we must examine all the time where we stand in this regard.
"If world leaders are coming to-getlier every year in Davos to examine the worid's economy, they should do the same regarding the worid's morals," he said.
To combat European anti-Semitism, Kantor unveiled liis vision for a what he calls a "positive Jewish positioning system," an emphasis to the world on Jewish achievements and contributions to the na-
"If world leaders are
coming together every year in Davos
to examine the world's economy,
they should do the same regarding the world's morals/'
tions and to humankind. Kantor sees a need not only to rcact to anti-Semitism, but to act, to show the worid tliat a lot of people's national heroes are, "often to their surprise," Jewish.
"Acknowledging the contribution of its Jewish citizens in every state in Europe and respecting tliem as fellow citizerB and as Jews is tlie most effective way I see to fight anti-Semitism," said Kantor.
Bom in Moscow in 1953, Kantor is tiie son of a Jewish Red Army soldier. A Russian industrialist and space entrepreneur, Kantor's leadership in the European Jewish Congress has cast him as the face of European Jewry.
Formally trained as a specialist in spacecraft automatic control systems and tlie autlior of more tlian 30 sdentific works and inventions, Kantor received both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the Moscow Aviation University. He is a well-known chief executive in the production seaor of tlie Russian Federation and he has been named Entrepreneur of the Year bytheQiamberof Industry and Commerce and the Union of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs of Russia.
Kantor founded tlie Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery in 2001. It hosts a collection of art by Jewish Diaspora artists who have miide tlie most substantial contributions to the development of 20tli-century avant-garde art.
In 2002, Kantor was elected vice-president of tlie Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, where he co-ordinates cultural issues and promotes co-operation between loail Jewish communities in Southeast Asia and China. ParticuJariy aaive in Jewish Diaspora affairs in Russia and Europe, Kantor actively helped open synagogues and Jewish cultural centres in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, and in Geneva.
Kantor is also a member of tlie Hillel's Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Last year, he established the Centre for European Jewish Cultural Studies at the Tel-Aviv University in Israel.
The Order of Merit of the People's Republic of Poland was instituted by an act of Polish Pariiament in April 1974. It is conferred to foreigners and Polish residents abroad for merit to Poland. The ceremony took place in tlie Polish embassy in London. S
-Courtesy ofRabinowitz/ Dorf Communications