Dr. Richard Prasquier
- President of the Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (CRIF)
Since 2007, Dr. Richard Prasquier has been the President of the Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (CRIF), the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France. He has served on the board of CRIF since 1998. Before his election as president of CRIF, he presided over his liaison group with the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church and the International Relations Committee of the CRIF. He also chairs within the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust Committee of Solidarity, and is also president of the French Committee for Yad Vashem. Dr. Prasquier is a cardiologist by profession.
Mario Silva
- Member of the Canadian Parliament.
In June 2004, Mario Silva was first elected as a Member of the Canadian Parliament. In January 2006 he was re-elected to the House of Commons and was reelected again in the 2008 general election. From 1994-2004, Mr. Silva served as a member of Toronto City Council having been elected in 1994 and then twice re-elected by the people of his community. While serving as a City of Toronto Councillor, Mr. Silva held a number of posts including Acting Mayor, and Vice-Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission. He was Chair of the Economic Development Committee where he spearheaded the development of the City’s first strategic economic plan identifying economic priorities, focused fiscal planning and long-term economic objectives for the municipality. As a parliamentarian Mr. Silva serves on the Canada-Portugal Parliamentary Association and the Canada-Argentina Parliamentary Association. He served as Chair of the Canada-Brazil Parliamentary Association and the Canada-Mexico Parliamentary association as well as Vice-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Inter-parliamentary Forum of the Americas. He is on the Board of the Canada-France Parliamentary Association and the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Committee. Following the re-election to the House of Commons Mr. Silva served as Official Opposition Critic for Labour, Official Opposition Critic for the Treasury Board and Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs in charge of the Americas. He has served as Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee and currently serves as Vice-Chair for the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. Mr. Silva has also served at the Chair of the Liberal Caucus Committee on Undocumented Workers. Mr. Silva was awarded the Order of Portugal (Commander) for his community work. He co-authored a book on immigrant experiences in Canada (“Fabric of a Nation”). In 2007, the President of the French Republic bestowed him the title of Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour (Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), the premier order of France and an award of great distinction.
Sergio Widder
- Director for Latin America, Simon Weisenthal Center.
Sergio Widder graduated from Buenos Aires University (UBA) in Political Science and obtained an M.A. degree from Universities Di Tella and San Andrés (Buenos Aires), in a joint program on NGO Development. Widder serves as the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Director for Latin America, under the supervision of its founder, Dr. Shimon Samuels (the Center’s Director for International Relations). Widder has been responsible for developing the regional office since its inception in 1992. Widder assisted Dr. Efraim Zuroff (Wiesenthal Center’s Israel Director) and Dr. Samuels on the extradition of Nazi war criminals Erich Priebke (to Italy), and Dinko Sakic and Nada Sakic (to Croatia). He was part of the Wiesenthal Center’s delegation at the World Conference Against Racism (Durban I), the World Summit for Sustainable Development, Durban II, the Presidential Summit of the Americas, and successive editions of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States. Together with Shimon Samuels and Mark Weitzman, Widder co-edited the Spanish edition of “Antisemitism: The Generic Hatred – Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal”, a book co-sponsored by UNESCO.
Jeremy Jones
- Director of International & Community Affairs, Australia/Israel & Jewish affairs Council.
Jeremy Jones received the 2007 Australian Human Rights Medal for his efforts to combat racism and promote interfaith and inter-community understanding. He is the Director of International & Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and speaks widely on Antisemitism in Australia (writing Annual Reports for Australian Jewry, Tel Aviv University, the OSCE and other bodies), Jewish/Muslim and Jewish/Christian dialogue, the use of law to combat Antisemitism, and many other topics. He has been on Australian Government delegations to seven international human rights conferences and at numerous international meetings representing Jewish organizations. He is a Member of the Order of Australia and an Honorary Life Member and former President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Michael Chlenov
- Secretery-General, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
Prof. Dr. Michael A. Chlenov started his professional activity as a cultural anthropologist, historian and linguist in the early 1960's. In the 1970's he shifted to Arctic studies. In recent decades he became engaged in anthropological studies of the Jewish civilization. His more than 150 academic publications. He was also engaged in archaeological surveys of the Bering Strait area were he discovered (in 1976) the largest pre-contact human-built monument in the Circumpolar area, the "Whale Alley". From 1965-1999 he was a fellow of the Moscow-based Institute of Ethnography (now the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1994 Chlenov has been a Dean at the Moscow-based State Maimonides Classic Academy where he chairs the Department of Hebrew and Jewish studies. Since 1998 he has served as Deputy Director in the joint project between the Moscow State University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem's, “Center for Jewish Studies and Jewish Civilization." Chlenov was active in the Soviet Jewish movement since 1971. In the 1970's and late 1980's he was a Hebrew-teacher in Moscow, and one of the founders of the so-called "kulturniks" group in the mid-1970s. In the course of perestroyka he devoted his efforts to organizing a functioning Jewish community in the USSR, and then , in Post-Soviet Russia. From 1989-1992 he chaired the Va'ad, the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia. In 1992 he was elected the President of the Va’ad of the Russian Federation. Chlenov now chairs the Federal Jewish National and Cultural Autonomy of Russia and serves as Secretary General of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Prof. Chlenov is a member of Governing Board of World Jewish Congress, a member of the General Council (Va'ad Hapoel) of the World Zionist Organization and of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Wendy Kahn
- National Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD).
Prior to assuming the position of National Director, Wendy Kahn was Vice-chairperson of the SAJBD Gauteng Council. As National Director, Kahn is involved in developing relationships with government and South African society, promoting the community and safeguarding the rights of Jewish South Africans. In her role at the Board, Wendy has been involved in responding to various antisemitic incidents, working with the various authorities to ensure that South Africa retains its low levels of antisemitism. Much of her recent work in this area has been in assisting Jewish students in combating antisemitism and anti-Zionism on campus. She has also recently been involved in two cases at the SA Human Rights Commission. Prior to joining the Board, Wendy was a founder and Executive Director of the He’atid Leadership Program, which she ran for 13 years, exposing non-Jewish South Africans to Israeli leadership and development models, sharing a balanced understanding of Israel. She also worked at Eskom, the South African Electricity Supplier for several years. Kahn played a pivotal role in leading the Jewish community’s response to the Xenophobia crisis in South Africa last year, a successful outreach campaign in which the community received great acclaim. She was also involved in the international Jewish caucus preparing a strategy for the Durban Review Conference. She is now involved in coordinating the community initiatives in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.