STRASBOURG - Members of the World Jewish Congress’ Jewish Diplomatic Corps and senior WJC leaders were hosted last Monday by Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries and head of the local Jewish community, Mr. Jean-Paul Kling, at the city’s hotel de ville. The delegation, headed by WJC CEO Robert Singer and WJC-JDCorps President Marc Pozniak, was in Strasbourg for the WJC-JDCorps’ first global summit. The JDCorps is the WJC’s flagship program, comprising nearly 200 Jewish professionals aged 28-45 from more than 40 countries around the world. More than 160 JDCorps members were in attendance at the summit.
Mayor Ries warmly welcomed the delegation, saying he was glad the World Jewish Congress had decided to hold its JDCorps summit in Strasbourg and inviting the WJC to hold its next big meeting in the city of Strasbourg. The mayor said that he knew the WJC strategically chose its host cities for such meetings, pointing to the 2013 plenary in Budapest and the 2016 plenary in Buenos Aires as examples, and added that as home to the Council of Europe, Strasbourg would be a most relevant place for a WJC plenary to gather. He promised that his office would be glad to offer any assistance necessary in organizing such an event.
WJC CEO Robert Singer told Ries that he was lucky to be mayor of such a beautiful city with such a rich and ancient Jewish history, and said he was sure that all of the Jewish diplomats present in the room would now act as ambassadors to Strasbourg and urge others to visit.
Singer presented Ries with the gift of a ‘yad,’ the Jewish ornamental pointer used in synagogues while reading from the Torah.
As part of the summit, participants visited the Council of Europe and the Palais de Congres on Monday November 14 for briefings from senior European officials, including Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe, and Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The delegation also held internal discussions on strengthening the JDCorps and creating effective diplomatic outreach.
For more on the WJC-JDCorps' meetings in Strasbourg
On Tuesday November 15, the delegation traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to follow in the footsteps of Theodor Herzl. World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder addressed the delegation at both the Trois Hotel and the Basel Synagogue, telling the young diplomats “Herzl is the leader that you should emulate, the leader you should study, the leader you should model yourself after. Because while it’s great to have a dream, but to make that dream a reality, you have to do the hard work, you have to work long hours, you have to devote your life to this.”