Ronald Lauder Urges Jews To Stop ‘Educating Antisemites’

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder urged Jewish communities Monday to stop spending millions trying to persuade antisemites and instead invest in Jewish children and Jewish education, warning that global Jewry faces “another dark hour” 90 years after the organization was founded in Geneva.

Speaking at the World Jewish Congress Governing Board gathering marking the WJC’s 90th anniversary, Lauder said antisemitism had surged across the West since the October 7 Hamas massacre and argued that many existing campaigns against Jew-hatred had failed to stop it.

“Ninety years ago, one of the darkest hours for the Jewish people was coming, and it is no accident that we are back here exactly 90 years later,” Lauder said. “Because today, in 2026, we face another dark hour.”

The WJC gathering brought together Jewish leaders, diplomats, and antisemitism envoys in Geneva, the same city where the organization was founded in 1936 as Jewish leaders sought to warn the world about Nazi Germany.

Lauder said Jewish communities worldwide were now confronting growing hostility in countries including the United States, Britain, France, Canada, and Australia, adding that it had become dangerous to appear visibly Jewish in major Western cities.

“We either move forward as one people ready to fight the fight of our lives, or suffer consequences that I don’t even want to contemplate,” he said.

Lauder sharply criticized the strategy many Jewish organizations adopted after October 7, saying more than $600 million had been spent in the United States alone on advertisements, media campaigns, and public messaging intended to combat antisemitism.

“Has it helped?” he asked. “Has all that money stopped, or even slowed down, the hatred against us? The answer is ‘No.’”

“You are wasting your breath trying to reason with them,” he added. “You can’t educate an antisemite.”

Instead, Lauder called for Jewish institutions to redirect resources toward Jewish schools, identity, and community-building efforts focused on younger generations.

“We stop concentrating on the antisemites, and we start focusing on our children,” he said. “Take all the money that’s been spent on this media circus and spend it on Jewish education.”

Lauder pointed to the Jewish schools he helped establish in Eastern Europe nearly four decades ago, saying they had helped revive local Jewish communities after the fall of communism. More than 50,000 students graduated from those schools, he said, producing “proud Jews” active in Jewish life.

“That is exactly what we have to do for all Jewish children everywhere,” he said.

While describing education as the long-term solution, Lauder said governments also needed to take immediate action against antisemitism and extremism. He accused Western leaders of lacking the political courage to confront the problem.

“All of these problems cannot be fixed by the Jewish people alone,” he said. “We need the help and courage of governments to stand up to this.”

“We are facing the greatest crisis since World War II,” Lauder added. “And all we see in government after government is Neville Chamberlains and no Winston Churchills.”

The warning came as 32 international antisemitism envoys and coordinators issued a joint declaration in Geneva calling for stronger enforcement against antisemitic violence, improved security for Jewish communities, and increased pressure on online platforms over hate speech.

Later in the gathering, Lauder introduced Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Axel Springer, praising him as a “righteous gentile” for publicly defending Israel and Zionism at a time when, Lauder said, much of the international media had turned hostile toward the Jewish state.

“This is especially true in journalism and media right now, when it is hard to tell the difference between the BBC and Al Jazeera,” Lauder said.

Döpfner told the gathering that “anti-Zionism is racism” and declared, “We shall all be Zionists.”

Lauder, who has led the WJC since 2007, said his current term, which has three years remaining, would be his last.

“I need your support in this, the greatest fight of our generation,” he said. “I will fight for you with every ounce of my strength, to my dying breath.”