The World Jewish Congress is an international organization whose mission is to address the interests and needs of Jews and Jewish communities throughout the world.

Founded in Geneva in 1936 to unite the Jewish people and mobilize the world against the Nazi onslaught, the WJC is the representative body of Jewish communities and organizations in over 80 countries from Argentina to Zimbabwe across six continents. It seeks to foster the unity and creative survival of the Jewish people while maintaining its spiritual, cultural and social heritage.

Towards these ends, the World Jewish Congress works to

• Secure the rights and safety Jews and Jewish communities around the world;
• Intensify the bonds of world Jewry and strengthen the ties of solidarity among Jewish communities everywhere;
• Act in coordination with and on behalf of Jewish communities before governmental, intergovernmental and other international authorities on matters concerning the Jewish people, and;
• Cooperate with all peoples on the basis of universal ideas of peace, freedom and justice.

Membership in the WJC is open to all representative Jewish groups or communities, irrespective of the social, political or economic ideology of the community's host country. The World Jewish Congress is supported by those communities and individual members who as concerned Jewish citizens want their voices to be heard on matters of concern to the Jewish people.

With headquarters in New York, the WJC has affiliate offices around the world including Brussels, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Geneva, Johannesburg, Moscow, Ottawa, Paris, Sydney and Jerusalem where the WJC's research institute is located.

As a global leader, the World Jewish Congress received special credentials and recognition at the United Nations making it unique among world-wide organizations as it enjoys a diplomatic seat in the U.N. and within many of it institutions, commissions and sub-bodies.

The core principle of the World Jewish Congress is that all Jews are responsible for one another. We seek to achieve this by governing with consensus and celebrating unity in our vast diversity.

As we have been for nearly three quarters of a century, the World Jewish Congress continues to be the permanent address of the Jewish people.