In a letter to U.S. President Donald J. Trump, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder issued a call for urgent leadership and concrete action to confront the global surge in antisemitism, underscored by today’s deadly antisemitic terrorist attack in Australia:

Dear President Trump:

We are witnessing a growing crescendo of violence targeting Jewish people around the world. We have watched in horror:

The October 7th pogrom that slaughtered 1,200 in Israel.

A beautiful young couple about to get married, gunned down in the streets of our nation’s capital.

3 worshippers at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.

And today, 11 murdered at a Hannukah event in Australia.

The one common thread – all the victims were Jews. But we are making a grave mistake to believe these attacks are directed at Jews only. History has shown us – again and again – that what begins with the Jews, never ends with the Jews. In reality, these attacks are the opening salvos in a war against the Judeo-Christian values that brought the world out of the dark ages. The attackers are the same people – over and over again – who have tried to push the world back into that darkness.

This is an attack on Western Civilization – pure and simple.

Mr. President, no one in the entire world has done more to stand with the Jewish people and support us. No one has shown more courage than you … in taking out the Iranian nuclear sites that were a potential threat not just to Israel, but the entire world. It was you who ended the Gaza War. No one, Sir, has been a greater friend to the Jewish people and no one has protected Western Civilization as you have.

So tonight, Mr. President, when the menorah is lit in the White House on the first night of Hannukah, I believe the glow from those candles will shine far beyond Pennsylvania Avenue. It will radiate across the globe and to the heavens as a powerful symbol against these forces of darkness … in solidarity, in defiance and in our common purpose of protecting everything we all hold dear in this world.

I cannot thank you enough.

Ronald S. Lauder
President of the World Jewish Congress