{"id":64360,"date":"2026-05-12T22:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/64360\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:25:24","slug":"wjc-president-urges-leaders-to-focus-on-jewish-future-not-antisemites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/64360\/","title":{"rendered":"WJC president urges leaders to focus on Jewish future, not antisemites"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jewish world must stop spending vast sums trying to persuade antisemites and instead invest in Jewish education, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told Jewish leaders in Geneva, warning that global Jewry faces \u201canother dark hour\u201d 90 years<\/a> after the organization was founded in the same city.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the WJC Governing Board as the organization marked the anniversary of its 1936 founding, Lauder drew a direct parallel between the Jewish leaders who gathered before World War II to warn of the danger from Nazi Germany and the threats facing Jewish communities today.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety years ago, one of the darkest hours for the Jewish people was coming, and it is no accident that we are back here exactly 90 years later,\u201d Lauder said, according to a copy of his remarks. \u201cBecause today, in 2026, we face another dark hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauder said Jewish communities worldwide were facing a surge of antisemitism from Australia and Canada<\/a> to the UK, France, and the US, adding that it had become dangerous to be visibly Jewish in major Western capitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe either move forward as one people ready to fight the fight of our lives, or suffer consequences that I don\u2019t even want to contemplate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident of the World Jewish Congress and President of the conference, Ronald S. Lauder (credit: SHAHAR AZRAN)\u2018You can\u2019t educate an antisemite\u2019<\/p>\n

Lauder said Jewish organizations in the US had spent more than $600 million since the October 7 massacre fighting antisemitism through advertisements, media campaigns, and public messaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas it helped?\u201d he asked. \u201cHas all that money stopped, or even slowed down, the hatred against us? The answer is \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that antisemites were not lacking facts but were committed to narratives that blame Jews and Israel for global problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are wasting your breath trying to reason with them,\u201d Lauder said. \u201cYou can\u2019t educate an antisemite<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WJC president called for what he described as a complete change in course, saying Jewish institutions should stop focusing their energy on antisemites and redirect resources toward the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stop concentrating on the antisemites, and we start focusing on our children,\u201d he said. \u201cTake all the money that\u2019s been spent on this media circus and spend it on Jewish education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauder cited the Jewish schools he helped establish in Eastern Europe nearly 40 years ago, saying they had become \u201ccatalysts for the revival of Jewish communities.\u201d More than 50,000 students had graduated from the schools, he said, producing \u201cproud Jews\u201d active in their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is exactly what we have to do for all Jewish children everywhere,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Warning to Europe and Western governments<\/p>\n

While Lauder said that education was the long-term answer, the current crisis required immediate political action. He accused governments in Europe of lacking the courage to confront antisemitism and extremism.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these problems cannot be fixed by the Jewish people alone,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need the help and courage of governments to stand up to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politicians are afraid of losing votes, he said, comparing today\u2019s political weakness to appeasement before World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing the greatest crisis since World War II,\u201d Lauder said. \u201cAnd all we see in government after government is Neville Chamberlains and no Winston Churchills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauder also urged Jews to build stronger alliances with Christian communities, saying Jews and Christians both face the threat of Muslim<\/a> extremism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the world has to realize is that today it\u2019s the Jews, and tomorrow it\u2019s everyone else,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauder praises D\u00f6pfner, criticizes media<\/p>\n

Lauder also used the gathering to introduce Axel Springer CEO Mathias D\u00f6pfner<\/a>, whom he called a \u201crighteous gentile\u201d and a rare media leader willing to defend Israel publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is especially true in journalism and media right now, when it is hard to tell the difference between the BBC and Al Jazeera,\u201d Lauder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen journalism distorts the news about Israel every day, Mathias holds fast,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The WJC\u2019s strength lay in its access to heads of state and senior officials, and the organization deals directly with national leadership in ways other Jewish organizations cannot, he explained.<\/p>\n

He noted that he became WJC president in 2007 and said that his current term, which has three years remaining, would be his last.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need your support in this, the greatest fight of our generation,\u201d Lauder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will fight for you with every ounce of my strength, to my dying breath.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jewish world must stop spending vast sums trying to persuade antisemites and instead invest in Jewish education,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[4559,65,35136,34556],"class_list":["post-64360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-antisemitism","tag-geneva","tag-ronald-lauder","tag-world-jewish-congress"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116563956766035876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}