Dr Moshe Kantor is a prominent public figure, international philanthropist and scientist who has served as President of the European Jewish Congress since 2007.
He is known worldwide for his fight against antisemitism, racism, extremism, neo- Nazism, negationism and intolerance. The prosperity, freedom and security of the Jewish people are his first priorities. Under Kantor’s leadership, the EJC has given a unified voice to European Jewry.
In 2005, Moshe Kantor founded the World Holocaust Forum Foundation (WHFF), established to support Holocaust remembrance activities for the sake of preserving the historical memory of nations all over the world and preventing future tragedies.
The same year, he initiated and organized, in partnership with WHF, the first "Let My People Live!" International Forum in Krakow, Poland, to mark 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Since then, the Forum has acquired great support from the European Union institutions and Heads of State as well as high-ranking politicians and distinguished personalities. It has become a tradition to organise the Forum on historical dates and sites related to the Shoah. The Second International Forum “Let My People Live!” was held in 2006 in Kyiv, Ukraine to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy. The third “Let My People Live!” Forum was held in Krakow, Poland, on January 27, 2010 in collaboration with Yad Vashem and was attended by a delegation of nearly 100 parliamentarians from the European Parliament led by its President Jerzy Buzek. The Fourth “Let My People Live!" International Forum was organized in 2015 in Prague and Theresienstadt, Czech Republic, in collaboration with the President of the Czech Republic and the President of the European Parliament.
The Fifth World Holocaust Forum “Remembering the Holocaust, fighting antisemitism” was initiated by Moshe Kantor and hosted by the President of the State of Israel Reuven Rivlin at Yad Vashem on 23-24 January 2020. Nearly 50 heads of state and royalty from across the world, as well as the three leaders of the European Union institutions, gathered in Jerusalem to honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and to reaffirm their unity and commitment against the upsurge of antisemitism globally and .The event was the largest diplomatic event in Israel’s history.
In 2006 Kantor founded the European Jewish Fund (EJF), which focuses on promoting Jewish life throughout Europe by supporting educational and leadership programmes aimed at reinforcing Jewish identity, culture and traditions, especially by re-connecting people with their rich and vital Jewish heritage.
The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe founded by Moshe Kantor in 2007 is today the largest non-governmental transnational expert institution of its kind uniting leading, world-renowned specialists on non- proliferation of nuclear arms, materials and delivery vehicles.
Moshe Kantor is also founder and president of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR). Created in 2008, ECTR is a non-governmental organization composed of former European Heads of States, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other world-renowned individuals for their achievements in “promoting tolerance”. From 2008 until 2014, ECTR was co-chaired by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of Poland. Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has held this position since 2015. The ECTR was established to monitor European countries’ adherence to principles of democracy and tolerance and to develop practical initiatives aimed at promoting mutual understanding and reconciliation between peoples, social groups and cultures.
In light of the rising antisemitism worldwide, Moshe Kantor initiated in 2010 the creation of the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry in Tel Aviv University. The Kantor Center publishes annually the ‘Antisemitism Worldwide Report’ recognised internationally and used by European Union institutions and international organisations as one of the main source of information and reliable research on the trends, sources and manifestations of antisemitism in the world.
In 2010, Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, nominated Moshe Kantor as Member of the Directorate and in 2019 he became Chancellor of the Yad Vashem Council.
In 2012, Moshe Kantor launched the SACC programme, which deals with the security and crisis management of European Jewish communities. Due to the aggravation of the threat, the programme expanded into a new entity SACC by EJC , which started its activities in 2016 and has ever since supported the reinforcement of security and crisis preparedness of EJC affiliated communities through equipment and technological solutions, numerous trainings, conferences and drills.
During the 14th Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) that took place in Budapest in 2013, Moshe Kantor was elected as Chairman of the WJC Policy Council. He was re-elected in the same capacity at the 15th WJC Plenary Assembly held in New York in April 2017.
In the scope of his philanthropic activities Moshe Kantor is involved in numerous organisations in the following capacities: Patron and Honorary Life President of Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Patron and Honorary Life President of the Kantor King Solomon School, Patron of the Community Security Trust (CST), Patron of Jewish Care, Patron of the Jewish Leadership Council, Member of Royal Opera House Board of Honorary Directors, Member of Council of Benefactors of the Royal Society of Medicine, Ambassador for the Royal National institute of Blind People, Sponsor of Prince’s Foundation, King Edward VII Hospital, University College London, Royal Institution of Great Britain, MS Society, Commonwealth War Graves Foundation etc.
Kantor received the following awards: Order of Friendship (Russia, 1998), Order of Merit (Poland, 2005), Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraine, 2006), Order of Leopold (Belgium, 2009), Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (France, 2012), the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy, 2013), Grand Cross of the National Order For Merit (Romania, 2014), Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (France, 2015) and the Order of Honour (Russia, 2016), the “Medal Deserved for Tolerance” by the Ecumenical Foundation Tolerance (2011) and the European Jewish Leadership Award (2012). In addition, he received an honorary doctorate from Tel-Aviv University (2004).
Moshe Kantor was recognized for eight consecutive years as one of the ’50 Most Influential Jews in the World’ by the Jerusalem Post. In 2020, he was acknowledged as one of five Jewish leaders who shaped the year 5780 worldwide by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth for his efforts in bringing and organizing the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Israel.
In 2001, Kantor created the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery (MAGMA) with a mission to show the contribution of artists of Jewish origin to the world’s avant- garde, modernist and post-modernist art - in other words to the art of the 20th century. The Museum thus contains the world’s most important private collection of Jewish art.
Moshe Kantor graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (1976) and has a PhD in Spacecraft Automatic Control Systems (1981).