France to serve as IHRA president in 2027
France has been unanimously elected to take over the annual rotating presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) next year, the French foreign minister said on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2025. Pic: Freddie Everett/U.S. State Department.
The decision, taken last week during the organisation’s plenary session in Jerusalem, will see France succeed Argentina as the group’s leader in 2027.
“In the face of the wave of antisemitism that has swept the world for two years, it is crucial to preserve the memory of the Shoah and to pass it on to younger generations,” French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot posted on X.
The IHRA is an intergovernmental organisation comprising more than 40 countries that seeks to promote Holocaust education and awareness worldwide.
The group is most commonly known for its non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism, adopted a decade ago, which has become the gold standard for the most ancient hate and has since been recognised by more than 1,200 entities worldwide, including the U.S. State Department.
“Antisemitism is not and was never the problem of Jews alone,” Michal Cotler-Wunsh, CEO of the International Legal Forum and Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JNS on Wednesday. “It sounds like sirens to the normalisation of extremism that threatens the foundations of democracies everywhere, including in France itself.”
