Delegates at World Jewish Congress 25th Anniversary Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, 1961The World Jewish Congress ( WJC ) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations.

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 a 2010 resolution on Iran, the WJC expressed support for international condemnation of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ’ s repeated calls for the abolition of the State of Israel and his statements questioning the Holocaust.

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 .”

Further to the WJC ’ s and other international organizations ’ calls, representatives of many Western countries either did not show up or walked out of the conference chamber when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Israel in his speech to the Durban Review Conference in Geneva in April 2009 and to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York in September 2009.

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

The WJC has repeatedly urged the international community to do more to bring to justice the masterminds of the terrorist attacks against Israel's embassy and AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, which Argentinean prosecutors have said were carried out at the instigation of senior Iranian officials.

The WJC website states that “ The plight of Jews who fled from, or still live in, Arab lands and their specific concerns are not well-known and need to be raised with governments and international organizations.

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.

Affiliated Jewish organizations send delegates to these two WJC bodies ; their number depends on the size of the Jewish communities they represent.

The WJC ’ s precursor organizations were the American Jewish Congress and the Comité des Délégations Juives ( Committee of Jewish Delegations ).

The WJC also lobbied Allied governments on behalf of Jewish refugees, and urged US Jewish organizations to work towards waiving immigration quotas for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.

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.

In 1995, the WJC initiated negotiations on behalf of various Jewish organizations with Swiss banks and the government of Switzerland over so-called dormant World War II-era bank accounts of Holocaust victims.

By December 1997, Hevesi as Comptroller of the City of New York enlisted the weight and soundness of his City's finances in the cause of forcing Swiss banks to meet the demands of the World Jewish Congress and other organizations then suing Swiss banks over Nazi-era bank balances the WJC said was owing to the heirs of victims of the Holocaust, joined eventually by both then-Mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani and then-Governor of New York State George Pataki.

During the 1950s, the WJC conducted negotiations with a number of Arab governments, notably in North Africa, and pleaded with them to allow their Jewish populations to leave their native countries.

Meeting of a WJC delegation led by Edgar Bronfman with GDR leader Erich Honecker, in East Berlin, October 1988During the mid-1980s, the World Jewish Congress also entered into diplomatic talks with several Central and Eastern European countries, notably Communist East Germany, whose leadership the WJC urged to recognize its obligations to Jewish victims of Nazi Germany.

Ex-officio members of the WJC Executive are the heads of the five regional affiliates, currently Vadim Shulman of Ukraine ( Euro-Asian Jewish Congress ), Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor of Russia ( European Jewish Congress ), Evelyn Sommer of the United States ( WJC North America ), Jack Terpins of Brazil ( Latin American Jewish Congress ), and Shai Hermesh of Israel ( WJC Israel ).

Some of the personnel who worked in the WJC ’ s European offices immigrated to the United States when the WJC moved its headquarters there.

Left to right: Nahum Goldmann, Stephen Wise, and French lawyer Henri Torres | Henry Torrès ( speaking ) at a World Jewish Congress conference in New York City, 7 June 1942 Under the auspices of the WJC, 18 committees were set up in the United States composed of exiled representatives of the different European Jewish communities under Nazi rule.

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.

The WJC also supported the foundation of the United Nations Organization in 1945.

In representations to the United States, Britain and France, the WJC detailed Jewish moral and material claims on Germany.

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.

On 25 June 1982, WJC President Edgar Bronfman became the first leader ever of a Jewish organization to address the United Nations General Assembly.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

On repeated occasions, the WJC has urged countries to ensure that Holocaust denial is publicly condemned and fought.

Since the end of World War II, the WJC has pressed governments and private enterprises to return seized or looted Jewish assets to their rightful owners.

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 .”

On 15 May 1948, the day of Israel ’ s proclamation of independence, the WJC Executive pledged “ world Jewry ’ s solidarity ” with the fledgling Jewish state.

In 1950, the WJC opened an office in Frankfurt to function as a “ listening post ” on developments in Germany.

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 .”

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

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.

" Asked if the WJC was influential, Ecclestone said: “ It's a pity they didn't sort the banks out " and “ They have a lot of influence everywhere.

WJC Vice-President Charlotte Knobloch called the verdict “ quirky ” and said that it cast a damning light on the legal proceedings.

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 .”

Bosnia's Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, WJC Vice-President Rabbi Marc Schneier, and British Imam Abdujalil Sajid in Brussels, December 2010The World Jewish Congress considers dialogue with representatives of moderate Islam as “ one of the most important and challenging issues at this time.

On that occasion, WJC Vice-President Marc Schneier declared: “ We have hopefully kick-started a movement that will spread across Europe.