In the wake of a global rise in antisemitism not seen in generations, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder told some 250 attendees at the organization’s annual gala dinner on Monday that the “only” solutions are “creating more Jewish schools” and “taking the high ground in public relations.” 

“The entire education system — K-12 to college — must be retaught. Laws must be passed that will focus on no racism, no antisemitism and no anti-Western civilization being taught,” said Lauder. “It’s [also] time we fight back with stronger PR to tell the truth about [antisemitism and Israel]. If Israel doesn’t want to do this, we in the Diaspora will help.

“I don’t blame Jewish organizations for not being prepared” for the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel and their aftermath, continued Lauder. “[But] all of these groups don’t know how to [combat antisemitism]. Frankly, they’re wasting a lot of money. Education and public relations are the only [answers].” 

The event, held at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, honored Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) with WJC’s Theodor Herzl Award for the lawmakers’ pro-Israel advocacy and opposition to antisemitism. 

Stefanik, who announced earlier this week she is running for governor of New York in the 2026 election, told the audience she plans to continue “exposing the truth about how antisemitism is normalized and institutionalized in American higher education.” 

“I will not stop until accountability is real and until every Jewish student in this country can walk across campus without fear,” she said.   

“As I look around my beloved home state, I know there is another battle that now demands our focus,” continued Stefanik, speaking nearly a week after the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. “Today, New York is not just a city and state in crisis, it is the epicenter in the fight for democracy, capitalism and dignity of work.” 

Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for Stefanik, told Jewish Insider after the event that, if elected governor, “Stefanik will enforce and strengthen New York’s anti-BDS law.”

“Our office works with Jewish schools in New York State to provide increased Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding from DHS as well as state funding for protecting the safety and security of Jewish students,” she told JI. “[Stefanik] is also a proud co-sponsor of the Countering Hate Against Israel by Federal Contractors Act which would prohibit the federal government from contracting with entities that boycott Israel. We will institute this at the state level. She will continue to fight against the antisemitic BDS movement in New York State like she has done in Congress.”

Lauder voiced support for Stefanik’s campaign launch. “Our hearts are with you as our next governor in New York,” he said to applause. 

Fetterman gave virtual remarks from Washington, where he remained to vote on an effort to end the government shutdown. “The proudest thing I’ve done in my entire Senate career is to stand with Israel and the Jewish community worldwide through this horrible war in Gaza. My voice is going to follow Israel,” he said.

“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s (AJCF) 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan. 

Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities. In January, he led an AJCF-Exodus Delegation to Poland, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

“It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement, in which American Jews played a meaningful role. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.”

Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis. 

“We have to do it again,” he said. Following the recent shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week that American Jews face an “elevated threat.”  

Wednesday’s event was held in support of AJCF’s anti-hate educational center based in Oswiecim, Poland. In attendance — in full uniform — were several alumni of the American Service Academies Program, a 16-day educational initiative in Poland run by AJCF for a select group of cadets and midshipmen from the academies for the U.S. Military, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Most of the participants are not Jewish and come from rural towns. 

At the dinner, AJCF announced plans to partner with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to bring Black and Jewish leaders on the program to learn about shared history. The group also announced the recent purchase of a new facility, which will be located across the street from the current one and will focus on genocide prevention education. 

“Be proud of who you are, what you have persevered through and the example that you have set for the world,” Jones told the crowd, which also included several Holocaust survivors. 

“Just an inch out of the horrors of the Holocaust, [Jews in the Civil Rights Movement] came and helped us,” Jones reflected. “Can you imagine that? Being an inch out of the horrors of the Holocaust and then seeing your children get in buses and go down south to help somebody. What a people.”