World Jewish Congress @WorldJewishCong

We're deeply saddened by the catastrophic twin earthquakes in Venezuela. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those affected by this disaster. We wish a swift recovery to the injured and stand in solidarity with the emergency crews working tirelessly on the ground.

I addressed the @UN_HRC for @WorldJewishCong on the full and equal participation in sports for women and girls and stress the reality for many female Jewish athletes who face pervasive gender bias intersecting with targeted, vitriolic antisemitism and religious exclusion.

In New York City, there is a new political litmus test on the far-left.  Call it a genocide and vilify those who stand with the only Jewish State, or else. Facts are optional, slogans required.  When truth becomes a political inconvenience, something has gone very wrong.

Threats, physical assault, hate speech. Taken together, these actions are meant to harm Jews directly, make them feel ostracized as a group, and also intimidate even those who are friends of Jews. This is antisemitism week in and week out. ➡️ In Italy, the mayor of the town of Varallo in the Piedmont region received a threatening letter headlined “F**k Israel” with a .40 caliber bullet inside. Dozens of Israeli families moved to the region in recent years. “This is the only warning before we start shooting,” the letter read. It was signed by an organization calling itself the “Anti-Zionist Movement.” ➡️ German police arrested a 31-year-old man in Berlin for threatening and spitting on an older Jewish man and his two children. According to the reporting by the Bild newspaper, the victim was wearing a kippah. Passersby who witnessed it called police, who took the suspect into custody. ➡️ In Miami-Dade, a 19-year-old man was arrested and is facing hate crime charges in connection with two incidents in which he sprayed visibly Jewish people with an unknown liquid. The incidents happened back on May 9. The victims, within minutes of each other, were approached by a person in a black vehicle who sprayed them with liquid. ➡️ Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France far-left political party, La France Insoumise (LFI), accused French ministers of “following the orders” of the @Le_Crif and its president Yonathan Arfi. “The CRIF, well, it’s basically some far-right machine where every year all the ministers line up to go eat there. They pay 800 euros to go eat there, but taxes reimburse 60 percent of it, so it works out fine. So they all go there, and they follow orders,” he said.

The shooting attack in Côte-des-Neiges today, a neighborhood with a large Jewish population, took the lives of Jewish Montrealer Michael Moshe Mizrahi and police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane. May their memories be a blessing. Our thoughts are with the victims’ families and friends. The motives of the shooter are still being investigated and appear to be related to incel ideology. Nevertheless, the events today left Montreal’s Jewish community deeply fearful and shaken.

CIJA @CIJAinfo

2 days ago

We mourn the tragic loss of Michael (Michel) Moshe Mizrahi z”l, a beloved member of Montreal's Jewish community, an innocent victim of today's events. Our thoughts and our deepest condolences are with his family, friends, and loved ones during this time of unimaginable pain.

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Le CIJA suit de très près la situation de tireur actif en cours dans le secteur de l'avenue Westbury et de l'avenue Courtrai, dans le quartier Côte-des-Neiges, et travaille activement avec ses partenaires de la @FederationCJA à ce sujet. Nos pensées vont tout d'abord à toutes les personnes touchées par cet incident, ainsi qu'à l'ensemble des policiers mobilisés pour assurer la sécurité des citoyens. La sécurité de notre communauté demeure notre priorité absolue. Nous invitons les membres de la communauté à suivre les mises à jour et les consignes diffusées par les autorités policières et les autres sources officielles. Signalez toute activité suspecte au 911. Lorsque cela peut être fait en toute sécurité, votre deuxième appel devrait être logé au Réseau de sécurité communautaire au 514-343-4343. Nous continuerons de vous tenir informés de tout développement pertinent au fur et à mesure que nous obtiendrons de nouveaux détails. #polqc #polmtl #polcan #assnat

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Grateful to City of Leipzig, who together with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and the German Southeast Europe Association, invited me to speak at the opening session of the conference “The World Is Within Us: Jewish Life Between Thessaloniki, Sofia, and Skopje.”

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Happy Father's Day and thank you to the dads, grandfathers, uncles, stepfathers, and for guiding us through life. "Cuando da el padre al ijo riye el padre el ijo," goes an old Ladino proverb. When the father gives to the son, the father laughs and the son laughs.

Help us preserve Europe's intangible Jewish heritage. Traditions that are passed down through generations. Share your story and help us weave a digital tapestry of living heritage. Lullabies, holiday food recipes, expressions, customs, artwork. ➡️ Submit your contribution at: intangible.jewisheritage.org The Intangible Jewish Heritage project is an initiative of the Thrive project, a collaboration with the WJC, @jewisheritage and @EUJS.

Every person has the right to seek safety for themselves and their families. We acknowledge the plight of refugees worldwide.

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Shabbat Shalom! Enjoy a day of rest. You deserve it.

The Research and Information Centre on Antisemitism (RIAS), Germany's leading antisemitism monitoring organisation, released its 2025 annual report this week. The figures are staggering: 8,725 antisemitic incidents were recorded across Germany’s 16 federal states in 2025. That averages to 24 antisemitic incidents per day. The researchers claim the true total is most likely to be even higher, as many incidents are never reported because the victims are too frightened. “We are experiencing an entrenchment of antisemitism… The almost everyday presence of hatred of Jews is leading to the creation of a new normality," Josef Schuster, president of @ZentralratJuden, said. There were four cases of extreme violence and 178 cases of physical assault. A man in Coburg was stabbed after being mistaken for a Jew. In another physical assault incident, a woman was choked and assaulted while cleaning a Holocaust memorial in Hamburg. In an instance of online harassment, a Jewish woman received a picture of a Zyklon B canister on Facebook with the description "Still in stock." In a case of antisemitic graffiti, the words “kill Jews” was painted on a high-speed train.

The @WorldJewishCong organized an important event at @UN_HRC to address the mounting antisemitism around the globe. We heard presentations from @osce_odihr & @EURightsAgency describing the alarming findings of two recent studies. The event included interventions by 🇦🇷🇨🇿🇩🇪🇬🇷🇺🇳.

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June 19 is the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. We urge the world to acknowledge the atrocities perpetrated in Israel on October 7 by Hamas terrorists. Dozens if not hundreds of women, girls, and also men were systematically subjected to horrific sexual violence in their homes, in front of their family members, and at a music festival. Most were then were murdered. The sexual violence continued against the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. And yet, there are people who deny the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis, despite reports, investigations, and testimonies of rescued hostages

June 18 is the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. Hate speech is not limited to words. It acts as a catalyst for dehumanization and can lead to real-world violence. For several years, WJC has been working closely with social media companies to help stop the spread of hate speech and antisemitism online. Tolerance and empathy are the antidote to bigotry and xenophobia. Our website AboutHolocaust.org, developed in partnership with @UNESCO, connects social media users with authoritative information about the Holocaust.

WJC was honored to participate in an interfaith dialogue event on how religion plays an integral role in developing an AI code of ethics, organized by @UNIDIR in partnership with @HolySeeGeneva. The discussion emphasized the need for stronger safeguards and regulations in the use of AI as a tool to shape narratives and influence security decisions. WJC director of Diplomacy and representative at the UN in Geneva @LeonSaltiel participated alongside the other distinguished speakers and panelists, including UNIDIR Director Robin Geiss, H.E. Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See, Swami Vedanishthananda, Spiritual Head of the Centre Védantique Genève, Sakyadeeta Nishanie, Buddhist Nun and Meditation Teacher, of the Buddhist Community Montenegro, Prof. Karamjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Father Ghislain-Marie Grange, o.p., Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the Institut Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, and Mohamed Levrak, president of the Geneva Interreligious Platform. Photos (C) UNIDIR

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Disturbing news from Canada: Toronto police have investigated that young adults and teenagers are being recruited through encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp by “bad actors” to carry out shooting attacks on buildings. This includes shootings in March on the US consulate and on several Toronto-area synagogues. The shooters are being paid and are required to film their attacks in order to get paid. Toronto’s police chief said they are still “trying to determine” who exactly is paying for it. The criminals-for-hire shootings are reportedly part of a broader trend that police are investigating with the FBI. @CIJAinfo

Condenamos la nueva vandalización de la Janukiá emplazada en la ciudad de Temuco, un símbolo que representa la libertad religiosa, la diversidad y la presencia histórica de la comunidad judía en nuestro país. Cuando se ataca de manera reiterada un símbolo religioso judío, resulta legítimo preguntarse si estamos frente a una manifestación de antisemitismo que busca intimidar, excluir o transmitir un mensaje de hostilidad hacia una comunidad determinada. Hacemos un llamado a condenar con la mayor severidad toda expresión de antisemitismo, intolerancia y discriminación. La convivencia democrática exige que todas las personas y comunidades puedan expresar su identidad y sus creencias con libertad, respeto y seguridad. #Antisemitismo #LibertadReligiosa #NoALaDiscriminación

Antisemitism is rampant. Governments are trying to step up the fight and hold perpetrators accountable. These are some developments overt this most recent week: ➡️ Britain’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the government's proscription of Palestine Action as a terror organisation is lawful. Palestine Action has remained banned since the High Court ruling in February to allow for further legal arguments and give the government time to consider an appeal. The proscription made it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. ➡️ A 64-year-old man in California was arrested for relentlessly harassing his Jewish neighbors by hurling antisemitic and racist slurs from his property. He was caught on video several times yelling at his neighbor, who is a rabbi. In one vile exchange, he screams: “You’re f—ing done. You kill Jesus, you’re going to f—ing hell.” ➡️ In the Netherlands, a 20-year-old man was arrested by Dutch police for plotting to attack a synagogue in Heemstede, near the city of Haarlem, by planting an explosive device. Investigators suspect the man is part of a terror network that has been targeting Jewish sites. ➡️ In Argentina, a man was arrested for graffitiing the facade of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The AMIA Jewish community building was tragically the target of a major Hezbollah terror attack in 1994. A car bomb at the site killed 85 people and injured hundreds more. ➡️ Pro-Israel participants were harassed at a pride parade in Bologna, Italy over the weekend. The participants were flying rainbow flags with a Star of David. Other demonstrators called them “baby killers” and there was a shoving match, though no injuries.

Arlette Testyler, a survivor of the Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris and President of the Union des déportés d'Auschwitzsince 2024, passed away this month. May her memory be a blessing. Arlette Testyler, née Reimann, was born in Paris, while her parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. During the German occupation of France, her father was arrested and sent to a labor camp. Arlette, her sister Madeleine, and their mother were also arrested by French police in a raid in July 1942. Jews in Paris with foreign citizenship were rounded up and held for several days in the Vélodrome d’Hiver, an outdoor cycling arena, under appalling conditions, before being deported to camps. The three were sent to the Beaune-la-Rolande camp, from which they escaped and lived in hiding until the war was over. After the war, they learned that their father was murdered in Auschwitz. The girls’ mother died not long after the war as well, leaving the children orphaned. The two sisters went on to marry two brothers, Charles and Yosef Testyler, who were also Holocaust survivors. Arlette and Charles Testyler wrote a book about their experiences. Arlette Testyler was an indefatigable voice for education and humanity.