World Jewish Congress - Herman Ziering
World Jewish Congress - Herman Ziering
Correspondence and papers that Ziering collected from the World Jewish Congress. These World War II era documents are related to efforts of the World Jewish Congress and other organizations and individuals that acted with the WJC to alert the allies to the existence of the Nazi genocide of the Jews and to make saving some of Europe's Jews a priority in the Allied War Effort. There are also documents from WJC and other organizations from the post-WWII era related to issues on immigration, refugees, war criminals, and other concerns.
- Photo is of the Third Session of the World Jewish Congress, 1942
What does the World Jewish Congress (WJC) do?
- The World Jewish Congress is the leading international organization connecting and protecting Jewish communities globally, in more than 100 countries.
- The WJC’s overriding goal is to protect Jewish communities across the globe and to allow Jews everywhere to live freely as Jews, without discrimination or the threat of persecution.
- The WJC protects Jews everywhere and constantly defends the State of Israel against these threats through direct contact with the world’s leaders.
- The WJC is the official representative of the Jewish world.
What is the mission of the WJC?
- "The mission of the World Jewish Congress is to foster the unity and represent the interests of the Jewish people, and to ensure the continuity and development of its religious, spiritual, cultural, and social heritage."
- “WJC has always been unique, different from other Jewish organizations because it is truly a democratic global body made up of more than one hundred communities around the world. The WJC was created on the eve of the Holocaust in 1936, just three years after the Nazi rise to power, out of the need to organize in the face of the dangerous antisemitism sweeping across Europe. Not only did no international Jewish organization exist in 1936, but the WJC’s founders faced tremendous opposition from other Jewish leaders and groups who did not want an organization advocating politically for Jewish rights. Our mission has not changed. It is the same today as it was then: to give the Jewish people a voice in the international arena, to protect Jews against antisemitism and violence, to defend Jewish values and interests anywhere and everywhere in the world, and—since 1948—to support and defend the Jewish state of Israel against its enemies and detractors.”
