The World Jewish Congress headquarters are in New York City, and the organization maintains international offices in Brussels, Belgium; Jerusalem; Paris, France; Moscow, Russia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Geneva, Switzerland.

[19] In its fight against growing anti-Semitism in Europe, the WJC pursued a two-pronged approach: the political and legal sphere (mainly lobbying of the League of Nations and public statements) and organizing a boycott of products from Nazi Germany.

His telegram read as follows: Received alarming report about plan being discussed and considered in Führer headquarters to exterminate at one fell swoop all Jews in German-controlled countries comprising three and a half to four million after deportation and concentration in the east thus solving Jewish question once and for all stop campaign planned for autumn methods being discussed including hydrocyanic acid stop[29]It was only several weeks later, on 28 August 1942, that WJC President Stephen S. Wise received Riegner's alarming message.

[38] The Holocaust era president of WJC, Stephen Wise, used his great influence with Jewish communities nationwide to energetically obstruct the Bergson Group's strategical level rescue activism.

The news agency JTA also reported the following: The closing session of the conference also adopted a resolution recommending that the Congress establish a Department of Community Service which would be charged with aiding in the reconstruction of the spiritual and cultural life of Jews in liberated countries.

'[43]Related video: Stephen Wise addresses the World Jewish Congress War Emergency Conference in Atlantic City, November 1944 In February 1945, the head of the Swedish office of the WJC, Hilel Storch, established contact through an intermediary with SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

Through negotiations with the Nazi leader and the subsequent talks with the head of the Swedish Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, the WJC was allowed to save 4,500 inmates from the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück.

[74] When Morocco became independent from France in 1956, WJC Political Director Alex Easterman immediately began negotiations with Prime Minister Mbarek Bekkay and other government officials, pressing them to grant Jews the right to leave.

[81] The World Jewish Congress was vocal in efforts to repeal United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which was adopted on November 10, 1975, and held "that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".

"[143] In April 2012, President Lauder declared that by prevaricating on the restitution issue Poland was "telling many elderly prewar landowners, including Holocaust survivors, that they have no foreseeable hope of even a small measure of justice for the assets that were seized from them".

At a dinner hosted by WJC President Lauder, the delegation of Jewish parliamentarians engaged in an open discussion with UN ambassadors from key countries including Germany, France, Poland and Russia.

[153] In June 2012, on the third anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University, Lauder published a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers in which he called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table.

WJC leaders have in particular urged the Polish government to come up with a restitution law for looted private properties, but Warsaw in March 2011 announced that this was impossible due to the current economic situation.

WJC officials have been critical of a rise of marches in a number of European countries including Hungary and Serbia by WWII Nazi veterans, far-right extremists and neo-Nazis who publicly glorify the Hitler regime and espouse anti-Semitic ideology.

[172] In 2009, WJC officials called for the extradition Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk from the United States to Germany, where he was wanted on charges of aiding to kill at least 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp during World War II.

"[175] In an opinion article entitled "Sweden's Shame", in 2010, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder attacked the Swedish government, church officials and media for "fanning the flames" of hatred against Jews.

[176] In May 2012, Lauder condemned as "despicable" remarks made by the Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung who had "revived anti-Semitic canards such as Jewish control of the media" and suggested that Israel's Mossad could have been behind the 2011 "massacres in Norway committed by Anders Breivik" in which 77 people died.

"[177] In August 2012, the WJC president criticized Austrian politicians for failing to publicly denounce the leader of the third-largest political party in the country, the FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache, who had posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his Facebook page.

His repeated denials are not credible because his words and actions speak for themselves," Ronald Lauder said in a statement, adding: "This scandal shows that anti-Jewish resentment is still widespread, and unscrupulous politicians are allowed to exploit it for electioneering purposes.

[179] In his speech at the opening dinner, in the presence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder lambasted a series of recent anti-Semitic and racist incidents in Hungary.

Lauder said "such words are reminiscent of the darkest era in European history" and concluded that "Hungary's international reputation has suffered in recent years" not because it was being "smeared by the foreign press" but rather due to extremists in the Jobbik party.

"We regret that Mr. Orbán did not address any recent anti-Semitic or racist incidents in the country, nor did he provide sufficient reassurance that a clear line has been drawn between his government and the far-right fringe," a WJC spokesman said afterwards.

[182] The World Jewish Congress has also urged internet companies, including social media giants such as Google, to act against Holocaust denial, hate speech and anti-Jewish incitement on their platforms.

Therefore, we call on Pope Benedict XVI to urgently address these concerns and to ensure that the achievements of four decades of Catholic-Jewish dialogue are not being damaged by a small minority of people who want to divide rather than unite.

"The Pope has found clear and unequivocal words regarding Bishop Williamson's Holocaust denial, and he deserves praise for admitting that mistakes were made within the Vatican in the handling of this affair," the WJC president was quoted as saying.

In an op-ed for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the WJC president wrote: "When the Pope allows the use of the Good Friday Prayer of the old Tridentine liturgy, which calls for Jews to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior of all men, some of us are deeply hurt.

[220] On the 18th anniversary of the AMIA bombing in July 2012, WJC President Lauder declared: "The Iranian regime has blood on its hands, not only by suppressing dissent at home but also by sponsoring terrorism world-wide.

"[221] In a 2010 resolution on Iran, the WJC expressed support for international condemnation of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the abolition of the State of Israel and his statements questioning the Holocaust.

"[222] In 2006, the WJC launched the Iran Update, "a comprehensive weekly publication disseminated via the internet to most members of the US Congress and government, United Nations missions, foreign diplomats, European Union officials, and Israeli policymakers, in addition to Jewish communities worldwide."

"It is high time that a strong signal is sent to Iran that unless this long-standing boycott is lifted, Iranian athletes will not be allowed to enter major international events such as next year's Olympic Games in London", Lauder said.