World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder praised President Donald Trump for withholding federal funds from U.S. universities in response to rising antisemitism. He also advocated for the removal of “anti-Israel and antisemitic teachers and administrators,” emphasizing the need for stronger measures to address discrimination in higher education.
Lauder hailed Trump’s actions of slashing grants to colleges and universities that “refused to protect Jewish students by condoning antisemitism.”
“He was the only president with the courage to do this,” Lauder declared in a keynote address in Jerusalem, speaking to over 350 World Jewish Congress (WJC) delegates from 72 countries on Monday.
“We will have to go school by school to remove the anti-Israel and antisemitic teachers and administrators,” Lauder advocated.
“This will be no easy task, but the World Jewish Congress is the one organization that should be at the forefront of this endeavor,” added the Jewish leader and billionaire philanthropist.
Lauder spoke as the Trump administration last week announced another $450 million in grant cuts to Harvard University, accusing the school of failing to combat “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment” on its campuses.
That budget slash was on top of the $2.2 billion in federal funding cut from Harvard one week earlier by the White House’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
Lauder’s praise for Trump’s actions, which have widespread support from the Jewish community at large, contrast with a statement released by the American Jewish Committee claiming that “overly broad” cuts to research funding “imperil science and innovation, and ultimately detract from the necessary fight against antisemitism while threatening the global pre-eminence of America’s research universities.”
At Monday’s session, Lauder was reelected for another term as WJC president, a position he has held for the last 18 years. The World Jewish Congress represents Jewish communities and organizations in 100 countries around the world, including in the U.S.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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