Katharina von Schnurbein

In December 2015 Katharina von Schnurbein was appointed as the first European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism.

In 2019, Ms. Schnurbein played a leading role in the inception of WJC’s International Meeting of Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA), convening its first-ever meeting in June of that year. As part of SECCA, Ms. Schnurbein has worked closely with WJC senior leadership to cooperate with governmental and organizational representatives around the world to develop best practices to combat antisemitism. These efforts include addressing the proliferation of hate speech and conspiracy theories, ensuring the safety and security of religious faith groups and their institutions, and combating legislation that restricts religious freedom.

Ms. Schnurbein has played an instrumental role in the adoption of four landmark documents in the fight against antisemitism, namely the EU Council Declarations of December 2018 and 2020, the European Strategy on combating antisemitism of October 2021 and the EU Council Conclusions of March 2022.

From 2010-2015 Ms. Schnurbein worked as part of the advisory team to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and was responsible for the dialogue with churches, religions and non-confessional organizations as well as civil society organizations and think tanks in Germany.
In 2002 Ms. Schnurbein first started working for the Commission, serving as press officer for the EU Delegation in Prague. With enlargement in 2004, she moved to Brussels as spokesperson on employment, social affairs and equal opportunities for the Czech EU Commissioner Vladimir Špidla.

From 2000-2002, Ms. Schnurbein worked for the Chairman of the European Affairs Committee at the German Bundestag in Berlin as well as for an international crisis management consultancy.
Ms. Schnurbein studied Political Science and Slavonic Studies at Charles University in Prague and the University of Bonn, holds a Master of Slavonic Studies from Oxford University (1997) and a Master of European Studies from the Center for European Integration Studies in Bonn (1999).