ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What did the Jewish Community of Madrid do recently to show solidarity with the Christian communities in the Middle East and Africa?

David Hatchwell is President of the Jewish Community of Madrid and Vice President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain. Mr. Hatchwell, a founding member and Vice-President of the Spain-Israel Chamber of Commerce since 2006 is also a member of the Spanish Board of the Peres Center for Peace and  of Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Spain. Mr. Hatchwell is a co-founder of ACOM (Acción para la Concordia en Oriente Medio—Action for Harmony in the Middle East), a Spain-based pro-Israel public diplomacy platform established in 2007.

Mr. Hatchwell attended a summit of European Jewish Communities whose theme was “Building common answers” that was held in Barcelona on June 28 and 29. The summit was organized by the European Council of Jewish Communities, the Joint Distribution Committee’s International Centre for Community Development and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. Its aim was to bring together representatives of Jewish communities, professionals in crisis management and emergency preparedness, and experts on geopolitical and social issues in order to reflect on the situation of the Jewish communities after the events in Toulouse, Paris and Copenhagen.

At the conference Mr. Hatchwell participated in a panel discussion on Radicalization, Extremism and Fundamentalism in Europe and their effects on Jewish communities.

He spoke with us about his participation in the summit and also about the Jewish Community of Madrid.