Amb. Lauder also presented Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, with the eighth WJC Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture.

His voice of “truth and common sense” has advanced the fight against antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, Lauder said.

Stephens, an opinion columnist for The New York Times and editor-in-chief of Sapir, a new quarterly dedicated to exploring issues of Jewish concern, previously worked as foreign-affairs columnist for The Wall Street Journal and as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.

Stephens called for a new “ecosystem of thought, creativity and culture” to replace “rotted-out” institutions.

He also said, “The reaction to the murder of Jews is euphoria. This is a road back to Kristallnacht.”