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WIESENTHAL CENTER ACTIVITIES HELP REDUCE ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES IN FRANCE French Minister of Interior calls for "zero-tolerance" policy against hate crimes For the last three years, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been at the forefront of fighting a wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes in France, the majority of which were carried out by Muslim extremists. Throughout this crisis, Wiesenthal Center officials met with senior French officials to get better protection for targeted Jewish institutions and neighborhoods. Finally, in June of 2002, a Wiesenthal Center delegation met with the new French Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, to emphasize continued deep concerns over the escalation of anti-Semitic crimes. At that meeting, France's new top cop committed to change things, and in the last year French police have been more attentive to the threats, and the number of hate crimes has been substantially reduced. He has consistently spoken out against extremism emanating from within elements of the Muslim community in France and just three weeks ago, speaking at the opening of SWC's historic conference on anti-Semitism at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Sarkozy denounced "the madness of anti-Semitism" and reiterated his call for a "zero-tolerance" policy against hate crimes. Another outcome of the meeting with Minister Sarkozy last year was a dispatching of a high-ranking delegation of French National Police to the Museum of Tolerance for an intense two-day seminar on combating hate crimes. The French law enforcement delegates were introduced to key elements of the Tools for Tolerance ® for Law Enforcement training program that included: a tour of the Museum; listening to a Holocaust survivor; a debriefing by a former neo-Nazi skinhead recruiter; a presentation on Terrorism and Hate on the Internet from a Center senior researcher; and, a spirited exchange on contrasting community policing and tactics in the US and France. Members of the French police delegation expressed interest in further contacts to enhance the training of ethics for their own recruits in France based on the dynamic, interactive models of the Museum of Tolerance.
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