‘Indifference is silence and silence is consent,’ Biden tells WJC gala upon accepting Herzl Award

US Vice President Joseph R. Biden and actor Kirk Douglas were honored by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Wednesday in New York for their contributions to the well-being of Israel and the Jewish people.

In his speech accepting the WJC’s Theodor Herzl Award, Biden spoke of his life-long dedication to protecting Jews and Israel and said: “I am a Zionist, and you need not be a Jew to be a Zionist.” He also reassured the audience that there would be "no diminution of support" of the United States for Israel under a Trump administration. 
 
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder opened the event by highlighting the impact Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism,  had on the Jewish people. Herzl, Lauder said, “understood that the good life that Jews enjoyed in places like Vienna and Berlin and Budapest would not last. He that the only way Jews could ever be safe was to no longer depend on other people and governments for their safety. The Jewish people had to take charge of its own destiny.”
 
Lauder praised Vice-President Biden for his commitment to Israel: “In his 36 years in the Senate, and especially on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joe Biden was a strong and outspoken defender of the Jewish state,” Lauder remarked.
 
Vice President Joe Biden opened his speech by calling to fight hatred of Jews: “We must continue our work to defeat this stubborn evil of anti-Semitism that still infects too much of our world, the pernicious lies that surface time and again, including here in our own country.

"We have to speak out every time anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, a lesson I learnt early on, regardless of where it is, regardless of when. Indifference is silence and silence is consent.”
 
The US vice-president also spoke out forcefully against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and condemned the recent UNESCO resolution which denied the Jewish link to holy sites in Jerusalem.
 
Biden reassured the audience about America’s relationship with Israel under President Donald Trump after what he called “one of the most divisive campaigns in the history of this nation.”

He declared: “I stand here to tell you that I have no doubt, none whatsoever, that in the Trump administration there will be no diminution of support as a consequence of this transition. Even if a new administration were inclined to reduce a commitment, which it's not, Congress would never let it happen. The American people would never let it happen.”

WJC presents inaugural Teddy Kollek Award to Kirk Douglas

The WJC also honored the legendary American actor, producer, director and philanthropist Kirk Douglas with the inaugural Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture. Douglas’ son Michael accepted the award on his father’s behalf.

Michael Douglas told the audience that his father’s “belief in Israel as the successful democracy in the Middle East has never wavered.”

He added that his father and late Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek shared the vision of Jerusalem as a city where Jews and Arabs could live together harmoniously and children of different faiths and backgrounds could get to know each other.

Douglas called the award a “very early present” for his father’s upcoming 100th birthday.

Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in New York on 9 December 1916. His parents were Jewish immigrants who came to America from a part of the Russian Empire that is now Belarus. Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, was a long-time friend of the actor.

Photos: Shahar Azran