World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder warned Wednesday that surging antisemitism in the West amounts to a “full-scale assault on the truth, on democracy, and on the safety of the Jewish people,” urging Jews and their Christian allies to confront it on campuses, in classrooms, and across social media.
Lauder delivered the remarks at the Jerusalem Post Washington Conference, saying he came to the nation’s capital “at a vital time in the history of this country and for the Jewish people,” and lamenting that “honesty in reporting today is very rare.”
He said he did not come “with any comfort,” but “with great urgency,” insisting that what the community is facing is “no minor issue,” “not just a misunderstanding,” and “certainly not an isolated moment,” but rather “a full-scale assault on the truth, on democracy, and on the safety of the Jewish people everywhere, and especially in Israel.”
Lauder said that for years, Jewish leaders warned that antisemitism was growing “not in the shadows, but in plain sight” — on college campuses, online, in politics, and even in the halls of Congress — only to be dismissed by those who claimed, “This is America, there is no antisemitism in America.”
“They were wrong,” he said, declaring that over the past two years, antisemitism “didn’t just rise, it exploded,” and stressing that the damage is measured in lives, not statistics. He cited recent attacks on Jews and pro-Israel demonstrators in Europe and the United States and described a series of brutal incidents, including a young couple connected to the Israeli Embassy in Washington who were gunned down before their wedding, and a woman at a pro-Israel walk in Boulder, Colorado, who was “not just murdered, she was burned alive” in an antisemitic firebombing attack.
“This is not normal, and it’s not accidental,” Lauder told the audience, adding that what is being seen today is not “just criticism of Israel,” but “the world’s oldest hatred” once again “raising its ugly head.”
Lauder blasted the now-routine chants heard at anti-Israel rallies, saying that when protesters shout, “From the river to the sea,” they are “calling for the elimination of the Jewish state,” and when they chant, “Globalize the Intifada,” they are really saying, “Jews everywhere must die.”
He said it would have once been unthinkable that in Western democracies, including the United States, “politicians would win elections by attacking Jews, by glorifying violence against Jews, by making excuses for it, by building entire campaigns around a single foreign-policy issue — Israel.”
Drawing a historical comparison, Lauder described how Nazi Germany used propaganda and mass media to inflame antisemitism in the 1930s, culminating in Kristallnacht in November 1938, when “in one night Germany went from anti-Jewish laws to murder.” He said Hitler watched the world’s muted reaction and concluded days later that the regime could “do whatever we want with the Jews.”
“We saw an even worse reaction after October 7,” Lauder argued, comparing today’s campus rallies to the idea of “colleges cheering for the Nazis after Kristallnacht.” He warned that today, instead of radio demagogues, “billions of dollars are being spent on social media,” calling the anti-Israel information war “well-coordinated, well-financed” and saying, “they have a head start, and we are behind.”
“We must spend as much as it takes to turn social media around with the truth, not lies,” he said, calling social media platforms “a battleground for the next generation” on par with the education system. Lauder charged that radicals have pushed indoctrination “all the way down from kindergarten through 12th grade,” rewriting textbooks, distorting history, and leaving “many young people brainwashed to hate Israel and the United States.”
He urged governments to use “every law on the books” — including civil rights tools such as Title VI — to hold universities and teachers’ unions accountable. He praised President Donald Trump’s record on that front, saying the Trump administration had been “stellar” in confronting antisemitism in higher education.
“Our enemies are not just targeting Jews, they target Christians as well and ultimately Western civilization,” Lauder continued, arguing that “every advance that human beings have made since the Dark Ages” is rooted in a Judeo–Christian moral framework founded on the Ten Commandments. From that, he said, came democracy, freedom, and “the highest standard of living in history” — precisely what “our enemies want to destroy.”
He highlighted the collapse of historic Christian communities across the Middle East, noting that Bethlehem, “literally the birthplace of Christianity,” was about 86 percent Christian in 1950 but is around ten percent today. He called it “one of the most outrageous lies” that Israel is smeared as an apartheid state, stressing that Israel is “the only country in the Middle East that took in Christian refugees” and “the only country where the Christian population is rising,” now numbering close to 200,000.
Lauder cited reports that between 50,000 and 100,000 Christians have been slaughtered in Nigeria since 2009 and that some 19,000 churches have been burned worldwide, warning that an estimated 360 million Christians face high levels of persecution in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
He recounted a story from roughly two decades ago, when a Christian schoolteacher in the Middle East sobbed on his shoulder and described how Islamists stormed his classroom and gave 50 children a choice: convert to Islam or die. “They refused to leave their Christian faith and all 50 children were beheaded,” Lauder said, adding that extremists spared the teacher “as a message.”
“In reality, antisemitism is really anti-Judeo–Christian,” he said, arguing that there is a moral obligation to stand up for persecuted Christians — and a practical one. “We must stand with them because they stand with us,” he insisted, calling Christians “the strongest supporters of Israel in this country” who continued coming to Israel even during rocket fire and recent conflicts, often volunteering on farms, in factories, and in local businesses.
Lauder singled out President Trump as “the most pro-Israel president ever,” echoing his earlier comments that Trump is the “Peace President” and has earned recognition for his efforts to disarm Hamas, free hostages, and end the Gaza war on terms that guarantee Israel’s security.
Looking ahead, Lauder laid out a broad agenda: expose “renegade teachers and their unions,” expect “moral courage” from public officials “not excuses,” rebuild education “around truth, not slogans and lies,” and “reinvent how we teach the history of the Jewish people,” noting that “too many young people have never heard of the Holocaust.”
“None of this will be easy. It will take time and effort from all of us,” Lauder said, stressing that Jews cannot and should not fight the battle alone because “this is not a Jewish issue. It’s a democratic issue. It’s a moral issue. It’s a human issue.”
He called for building “a coalition so strong, so united, so determined that no extremist movement can fracture it,” urging Jews and non-Jews alike to be “bridge builders, unshakable, unapologetic,” so that the next generation inherits “a world defined not by hatred, but by humanity.”
Invoking the generation that confronted the “forces of darkness” 80 years ago, Lauder closed with a call to action. “We must stand up today. This is our time and this is our fight,” he said, adding that the struggle is not only “for Israel and for the Jewish people,” but “for all people and all mankind.”
“There is so much at stake,” he concluded. “But I know we will prevail. God bless America, the beacon of freedom in the world. God bless Israel. God bless Christians worldwide. And God bless all of you.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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