The World Jewish Congress is described and cited in the novel The Wallenberg Dossier as one of the institutions actively seeking relief for Jews in Hungary and supporting Wallenberg’s actions.
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.
230 delegates representing Jewish communities in 32 countries met in in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 to address the issue of Nazi Germany stripping Jews from their rights and prosecuting them in a growing wave of anti-Semitism across Europe. There they established the World Jewish Congress.
The organization mobilized the Jewish people and the democratic forces as well against the Nazi onslaught, to ensure equal political and economic rights anywhere in the world and to support the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine. The objective was to create a world-wide Jewish representative body, democratically organized and able to act on matters of common concern.
The World Jewish Congress, in 1942, alerted with the historic ‘Riegner Telegram’ the free world to the Nazi Holocaust, requesting US and British leaders to take urgent action. The WJC set up a relief committee for Jewish war refugees and cooperated with the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect Jews in German-occupied countries.
The WJC actively cooperated with the Allied governments to help Jewish refugees from Europe and to ensure the restoration of Jewish minority rights in areas liberated by the Allied forces.
Following World War II, the World Jewish Congress operated to rebuild Jewish communities in Europe, provide assistance to displaced persons and Shoah survivors, push for the indemnification of victims by Germany, and advocated for the punishment of Nazi leaders who committed crimes against humanity.
The World Jewish Congress supported at the United Nations the establishment of the State of Israel.
The WJC has today become a global Jewish organization with affiliated communities and organizations in over 100 countries around the world.