Speaking in the Swiss city where the first Zionist congresses were held after 1897, World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder on Tuesday urged the next generation of Jewish leaders to be like Theodor Herzl, modern Zionism’s founding father.
“Have a vision, work hard, never stop defending the Jewish people,” Lauder told the WJC Jewish Diplomatic Corps’ first Global Summit, held in Strasbourg and Basel. It brought together more than 160 Jewish diplomats (JDs) from 37 countries who on Tuesday gathered in Switzerland to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the WJC there in August 1936.
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder told the group at the hotel where Theodor Herzl had his famous photograph taken overlooking the river Rhine: “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.
“Trust me, there will never be anything you do in your life – with the exception of raising a family – that will be more important. And we have all devoted ourselves to something much bigger than ourselves.”
The WJC president outlined six guiding principles of the World Jewish Congress: “First, we are one Jewish people, from the most Orthodox to the most secular, from the most conservative to the most liberal. Second, we must never be silent because we learned the consequences of silence. Third, anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments are one and the same, and they must end.
“Fourth, no Jewish child should ever walk in fear. Fifth, we must call for a viable two-state solution, but it must be a two-state solution that protects Israel and the Jewish people and is resolved between the two parties only. And finally, number six, all of us owe peace to the next generation.
“We are uniters, and we choose the power to heal over the call to hate,” Lauder said.
He urged the group to “choose optimism over pessimism” and added: “The Jewish people are not going to disappear […], that’s not God’s plan. But like Herzl, we can’t leave it completely in God’s hands; he expects us to do the work, and he has supplied us with the means.
“We will use that Jewish brilliance and Jewish creativity to solve our problems. […] We have to help our children and grandchildren to dust off their hearts and to re-discover that Jewish flame inside them […] because for 5,000 years, that flame has been lighting the entire world.”
On Sunday and Monday, the members of the WJC’s flagship Jewish Diplomatic Corps had met in the French city of Strasbourg, at the Council of Europe and the Palais des Congrès. Sessions included panel discussions and speeches by senior Council of Europe officials on key issues such as the protection of human rights, freedom of speech, and combating anti-Semitism. The group was also received by Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries on Monday evening.
The World Jewish Congress (WJC), founded in Geneva in 1936, is the international organization representing Jewish communities in 100 countries to governments, parliaments and international organizations. The Jewish Diplomatic Corps (JDCorps), a flagship program of the WJC, is a worldwide network of young Jewish professionals who voluntarily engage in diplomacy and public policy. Its members, known as JDs, are professionals who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and include attorneys, venture capitalists, financial advisers, university professors, social activists, parliamentarians, entrepreneurs and Jewish community leaders.
