08/27/2026
At the sixth annual Latin American Forum Against Antisemitism, held this year in Santo Domingo, B’nai B’rith Latin American Affairs Director Eduardo Kohn moderated a discussion on the legal tools to combat antisemitism and discrimination and delivered the panel’s closing remarks.
Kohn was joined on the panel by Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism; Fernando Lottenberg, Organization of American States (OAS) Commissioner to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism; Argentine Judge Franco Fiumara; and Bolivian Senator Tomasa Yarhui. Kohn’s message was direct: anti-discrimination laws exist across Latin America, but they have not been enough to meet the surge in antisemitism.
Dominican Foreign Minister Víctor Bisonó told the forum that his government is committed to fighting antisemitism and to defending Israel’s right to protect its territory and its people. That commitment was clear in the Dominican Republic’s historic decision to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, joining only a handful of Latin American countries to do so—and a step Ambassador Kaploun welcomed while committing to keep pressing until the rest of the region follows suit.
The forum also highlighted the importance of interfaith dialogue. In a session led by Rabbi Daniel Dolinsky of Uruguay, President of the Latin American Rabbinical Assembly, Evangelical and Jewish leaders underscored that their common values are what help them stand together against violence, discrimination and Jew hatred across the region.
And because so much of life now happens online, Sammy Eppel, a longtime B’nai B’rith leader in Venezuela now living in Miami, made the case that social media has become a crucial front in this fight: if we are serious about combating Jew hatred, we have to use every tool we have to confront the harassment and attacks Jews across the globe face every day.
