15th WJC Plenary Assembly

The World Jewish Congress held its 15th Plenary Assembly in New York April 23-25, 2017. This was the first time in its 80-year history that the WJC's supreme governing body held its quadrennial assembly in the United States. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley were among the keynote speakers over the course of the meeting.

US President Donald Trump also addressed the delegates in a video message on the occasion of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, in which he said: "On Yom HaShoah, we look back at the darkest chapter of human history. We mourn, we remember, we pray, and we pledge: Never again. I say it, never again. The mind cannot fathom the pain, the horror, and the loss. Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazi genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear."

The 600 delegates from 90 countries reelected WJC President Ronald S. Lauder for a third term, and vote for several members of the WJC's Executive Committee as well. The delegates also approved 10 resolutions on issues facing the Jewish people and Israel.