In reaction, the WJC published a comment which said: " The truth is that what stands in the way of aid to the Jews in Europe by the United Nations is not that such a program is dangerous, but simple lack of will to go to any trouble on their behalf.

In January 1948, WJC President Stephen Wise, appealed to US Secretary of State George Marshall: “ Between 800, 000 and a million Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, exclusive of Palestine, are in ' the greatest danger of destruction ' at the hands of Muslims being incited to holy war over the Partition of Palestine ... Acts of violence already perpetrated, together with those contemplated, being clearly aimed at the total destruction of the Jews, constitute genocide, which under the resolutions of the General Assembly is a crime against humanity .“ The United States, however, did not take any follow-up action to investigate these pleadings.

The organization emphasizes that “ the distribution of any compensation monies should not be handled by the WJC.

The WJC, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, founded in 1998, have secured millions of dollars for the victims and survivors of the Holocaust in payments from Germany, Swiss banks, Insurances and other parties totaling $ 20 billion.

Israel's President Shimon Peres addresses a Governing Board meeting of the WJC in Jerusalem, August 2010The last meeting of the Plenary Assembly, attended by over 400 delegates from 62 countries, was held in Jerusalem in January 2009.

However, the first impetus for the creation of the WJC came from the American Jewish Congress.

Nahum Goldmann, co-founder and president of the World Jewish Congress from 1949 to 1977The WJC chose Paris as its headquarters and also opened a liaison office to the League of Nations in Geneva, first headed by the Swiss international lawyer and WJC Legal Advisor Paul Guggenheim and later by Gerhart Riegner, who initially served as Guggenheim ’ s secretary.

In its fight against growing anti-Semitism in Europe, the WJC pursued a two-pronged approach: the political and legal sphere ( mainly the lobbying of the League of Nations and public statements ) on the one hand, and an attempt to organize a boycott of products from countries such as Nazi Germany on the other.

With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the WJC headquarters moved from Paris to Geneva to facilitate communications with Jewish communities in Europe.

Throughout the war, the WJC lobbied the Allied governments to grant visas to Jewish refugees from Europe and to ensure the restoration of Jewish minority rights in areas liberated by the Allied forces.

Despite the US State Department's opposition, the WJC obtained permission from the US Treasury Department, headed by Henry Morgenthau, to transmit funds to Europe for the rescue and assistance of persecuted Jews.

Second from right: Head of the WJC British Section Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading | Stella Isaacs, the Marchioness of Reading In November 1944, at the War Emergency Conference held in Atlantic City, USA, the WJC elaborated a program for the post-war period, which included calls for reparations from Germany to Jews and the use of heirless Jewish property for Jewish rehabilitation.

Through negotiations with the Nazi leader and the subsequent talks with the head of the Swedish Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, the WJC was allowed to save 4, 500 inmates from the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück.

When Morocco became independent from France in 1956, WJC Political Director Alex Easterman immediately began negotiations with Prime Minister Mbarek Bekkay and other government officials, pressing them to grant Jews the right to leave.

Whilst in 1957 an agreement was reached to allow for the emigration of all 8, 000 Jews from Mazagan that were held in a refugee camp near Casablanca, a 1959 WJC report concluded that in spite of repeated assurances by the new government that Jewish rights would be safeguarded, " internal political conflicts have obstructed a solution " to the problem that Moroccan Jews willing to leave the country were denied passports by the authorities.

Delegates from 43 countries attended the Fourth WJC Plenary Assembly held in Stockholm in 1959.

Under the leadership of Bronfman, the new Secretary General Israel Singer ( who took over from Gerhart Riegner in 1983 ), and Executive Director Elan Steinberg, the WJC adopted a more aggressive style.

The WJC also intervened to ensure that Polish Jews deported from Germany at the end of October 1938 and stranded in Zbaszyn would be allowed to resettle elsewhere in Poland.

At a dinner hosted by WJC President Lauder, the delegation of Jewish parliamentarians engaged in an open discussion with UN ambassadors from key countries including Germany, France, Poland and Russia.

Bernie EcclestoneIn July 2009, Bernie Ecclestone faced calls from WJC President Ronald S. Lauder to resign as Formula One chief after he had praised Adolf Hitler in a newspaper interview and said that Hitler “ got things done .” Lauder said someone with Ecclestone's views should not be allowed to run such an important and popular racing series.

In 2009, WJC officials called for the extradition Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk from the United States to Germany, where he was wanted on charges of aiding to kill at least 27, 900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp during World War II.

In 2008, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder criticized a visit by Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey to Tehran where she met with Ahmadinejad mainly to help a Swiss company secure a multi-billion-dollar contract to buy natural gas from Iran.

In its policy guidelines the WJC states that negotiations on Holocaust-era assets are “ conducted in the framework of the World Jewish Restitution Organization in coordination with the Israeli government and with the support of the US government and the European Union .”

WJC President Stephen Wise joins other delegates at the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Montreux, June 1948The same year, in a declaration approved by the parliament, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer recognized Germany's duty to make moral and material restitution to the Jewish people and signaled its readiness to engage in negotiations with Jewish representatives and the State of Israel.

The WJC has consistently lobbied the Polish government to enact legislation that would ensure the restitution of private property seized during the Nazi occupation and later during the Communist regime.

In April 1996, during a discussion about the restitution of Jewish communal property that had been seized during the Holocaust, WJC Secretary General Israel Singer, allegedly stated that " More than three million Jews died in Poland, and the Polish people are not going to be the heirs of the Polish Jews.

With all the sweeping developments and constant threats to our very existence, it is incumbent upon us as a global Jewish people to rally behind these historic values to promote our unity and resolve .” Diker vowed that the WJC would continue " to fight for human rights, equal rights, and Jewish rights.

In 1946, in a memorandum to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine drafted by WJC Political Secretary Alexander L. Easterman, the WJC declared that “ the only hope of reviving the life and culture of the Jewish people lies in the establishment of a fully self-governing Jewish Homeland, recognised as such throughout the world ; that is, a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine .”

The WJC Executive characterized the resolution as an “ attempt to defame Zionism by equating it with imperialism, colonialism, racism, and apartheid, amounting to incitement to racism and racial hatred .” All communities and organizations affiliated to the Congress were urged to take immediate action to mobilize public opinion against the resolution.

The WJC lobbies international organizations, notably the United Nations, to ensure that governments “ apply the same standards to Israel when judging its actions compared with those of other countries .” The WJC states on its website that “ Israel should not be singled out for criticism by countries which do not themselves adhere to the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law ” and that “ Israel needs to be treated fairly in international organizations, especially in United Nations bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council .”

The WJC believes that the three Abrahamic faiths ( Christianity, Islam and Judaism ) can cooperate “ to respond to the challenges posed by developments in modern society, especially to discuss and promote shared values .”

The organization resolved “ to make the four-fold threat ( the nuclear threat ; the threat of genocidal incitement ; international state sponsored terrorism ; and the systematic and widespread violations of the human and civil rights of the Iranian people ) that the current Iranian regime poses to international peace and stability, a high strategic priority of the WJC .”

In 2006, the WJC launched the Iran Update, “ a comprehensive weekly publication disseminated via the internet to most members of the US Congress and government, United Nations missions, foreign diplomats, European Union officials, and Israeli policymakers, in addition to Jewish communities worldwide .” The publication focused on exposing Iran ’ s ongoing pursuit of a nuclear capability, domestic Iranian politics, Iranian foreign policy in the Middle East and internationally, Israeli policy vis-à-vis Iran and the efforts of worldwide Jewish communities in combating Iranian Holocaust-denial and nuclear proliferation.

The WJC has repeatedly run campaigns accusing Iran of deceiving the international community and calling Ahmadinejad “ the world's foremost hatemonger .”

Jewish communal sites in Arab countries must be preserved and respected .” The WJC believes that the plight of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands has been neglected for decades by the international community, including governments and international organizations.

Following the exclusion of Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer from an ATP tournament in Dubai in February 2009, the WJC called for the “ suspension of all sporting events in the Arab Emirates until Israeli participants are admitted .” The response of the women ’ s and men ’ s tours to the exclusion of Peer had been “ faint-hearted ,” and they should have canceled the event immediately, WJC President Lauder was quoted by the news agency Bloomberg as saying.

At the end of the war, the WJC undertook efforts to rebuild Jewish communities in Europe, pushed for indemnification and reparation claims against Germany, provided assistance to displaced persons and survivors of the Holocaust, and advocated for the punishment of Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In 1956, WJC leaders delivered a memorandum to Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev during their visit to London, and a year later the World Jewish Congress Executive launched a worldwide call to attention regarding the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.

On 25 March 1987, WJC leaders Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Israel Singer, Sol Kanee and Elan Steinberg, as well as the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Morris Berthold Abram, arrived in Moscow to discuss the matter with Soviet government ministers, though officials swiftly denied that the USSR had agreed to an increase in Jewish emigration and had invited an Israeli delegation to visit Moscow.

Meeting of the representative of the World Jewish Congress, Alex Easterman, with the Pasha of Marrakesh and Lord of the Atlas, Thami El Glaoui | T ' hami el Mezourai El Glaoui, at the palace of the Pasha in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 1954The WJC leadership also kept in close touch with the leaders of the Moroccan independence movement, including the exiled sultan of Morocco, Mohammed V, who insisted that an autonomous Morocco would guarantee the freedom and equality of all its citizens, including access of non-Muslims to public administration.

French Justice Minister François Mitterrand ( left ) and leaders of the World Jewish Congress at a meeting in Paris in June 1957In 1966, the speaker of the West German parliament, Eugen Gerstenmaier, delivered an address titled, ‘ Germans and Jews – A Problem Unresolved ’ to the Fifth Plenary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium, becoming the first senior German politician to address a WJC conference, which caused some controversy within the WJC.

In public statements, other Jewish leaders, including former WJC Secretary General Gerhart Riegner, also called for the removal.

The WJC Executive said the pontiff's action was necessary to implement the agreement major European Catholic cardinals, including the cardinal of Kraków, Franciszek Macharski, had signed with Jewish leaders on 22 February 1987 in Geneva.

World Jewish Congress leader Gerhart M. Riegner ( center ) witnesses formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See, represented by Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli ( left ), and the State of Israel, represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin, December 1993Since 1945, WJC leaders have been received by Catholic pontiffs a number of times.

In 2008, WJC leaders met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at an inter-faith conference in the Spanish capital Madrid.