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Meinl will be taking the place of Vadim Shulman, who is standing down after less than eighteen months in the post.
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(L-R)New EAJC President Julius Meinl , WJC CEO Robert Singer and EAJC General Council Chairman Josef Zissels
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Julius Meinl, an Austrian born UK-based businessman was elected as the new president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) by delegates attending the congress’s General Assembly that was held this week in Jerusalem.
Meinl is the head of a privately owned family business that was founded by his great-great-grandfather in Vienna in 1862.
In his acceptance speech to the EAJC assembly, Julius Meinl emphasized his intentions to continue the fight against anti-Semitism in mainland Europe, which can come either in the form of criticism of Israel, and its policies, from a fast growing wave of neo-Nazism or in the form of Islamist terrorism.
In addition Meinl also hastened to point out that it was equally important to strengthen Jewish identity and self-identification, stating that throughout Europe many young Jews have almost no connection to their own identity, having grown up in homes where no-one mentioned their Jewish heritage. “The disturbing irony of the past 70 years is that being a Jew in the diaspora still remains remains a fact that should be kept hidden, as if the Jewish people were the ones who should be ashamed of what had happened to their communities during World War II.” Meinl summed up in his beach
One of five regional affiliates of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), the EAJC was formed in 2002 with a view to representing Jewish communities of countries situated within the Euro-Asian region with regard to relationships between local governments and international organizations, as well as defending the rights and legitimate interests of the Jewish people, as well as to provide aid in meeting community interests, and
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Julius Meinl was born in Vienna, Austria where he attended the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Economiques, Juridiques et Sociales, St Gallen, one of the world’s leading business schools, later going on to gain practical experience in the business world in the London offices of the Swiss Bank Corporation later moving to the United States where he worked with with Brown Brothers Harriman, the longest established private bank in the United States .
Meinl’s grandfather, also named Julius escaped Austria along with his Jewish wife and their son, settling in the United Kingdom where they became became naturalized British citizens in 1946 after having their Austrian citizenship revoked.
During World War II, Julius Meinl the Third provided considerable assistance to British authorities particularly in providing detailed information on how the Nazi Party had extended its influence on Central Europe , while after the war, he continued to provide assistance to the Central Commission for Germany and Austria in the process of completely removing the presence of the Nazi party in Austria, through providing identification of significant Nazi sympathisers who were still occupying positions of authority in the country after the war and who had remained undetected.
After the dust had settled throughout Europe, the Meinl returned to Austria to rebuild their considerable family business, which succeeded in doing this with considerable success, expanding the range of its retail operations not only in Austria but throughout central Europe, whilst diversifying into the world of banking.
