Jewish communities should be able to live their lives free from hatred, abuse, and violence both online and offline. Unfortunately, studies and reports showcase a deeply disturbing rise of antisemitism worldwide, whereas the most virulent form remains Israel-related antisemitism.
While antisemitic incidents most directly and intensely affect the Jewish community, antisemitism threatens everyone since it seeks to divide people from one another, erodes trust in government and nongovernmental institutions, and undermines democracy.
Consequently, more and more countries adopt national strategies and actions to combat antisemitism. But antisemitism does not stop at national borders. There is a vital need for a joint international effort. Against this background, the European Leadership Network (ELNET) initiated Actions Matter – The International Antisemitism Summit already in 2022 and has successfully partnered with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) for the upcoming conference in Vienna.
Welcoming Message from President Alexander Van der Bellen
new
The Program
International Antisemitism Conference:
Actions Matter – THE SUMMIT
On December 11-12, 2024, over 100 leading experts from politics, academia, and civil society will gather in Vienna for a crucial dialogue on combating antisemitism. Together, they will explore innovative global strategies, exchange best practices, and forge stronger international partnerships to protect Jewish communities around the world.
Networking
Connect with staholders, share insights, and expand your professional network. Don’t miss the chance to build valuable relationships.
Workshops
Engaging workshops led by fellow experts, providing you with the possibility to develop concrete policy recommendations for an overall action plan to fight antisemitism.
Plenaries
Our plenary sessions feature expert speakers sharing key insights and best practices. Join us for in-depth discussions and valuable takeaways.
Speakers at Actions Matter 2024
Yael Arad
President of The Olympic Committee of Israel and IOC Member, Business & Marketing Strategy Specialist
Arad is the first Israeli Olympic medalist with 20+ years of experience in entrepreneurship and international business development. Leader in the market in the development of marketing campaigns, concepts, and execution, most notable in sports.
Shams Asadi
Human Rights Commissioner of the City of Vienna, Austria
Asadi studied architecture and urban planning. She has many years of practical and academic experience in Urban Regeneration and Urban Development. The human rights dimension of urban development accompanied her from beginning of her professional life and since 2010 human rights are the main subject of her career.
Shani Benoualid
Digital Advisor at the DILCRAH, France
Since April 2019, Benoualid has been involved in various activities including monitoring online hate, reporting incidents, supporting associative projects, and working on laws and regulations. In March 2023, her role expanded to encompass efforts against racism and antisemitism. Additionally, Benoualid is a co-founder of the association #jesuislà, which addresses hate, misinformation, and harassment online. The organization actively participates in civic actions to counter negative online behaviors and promote respectful discourse.
Luc Bernard
Game Designer, USA
Bernard, a French Jewish game creator, is known for "The Light in the Darkness", a Holocaust-themed game praised worldwide for its powerful storytelling. He also introduced a Holocaust Museum in "Fortnite" and is launching "Anne Frank's Young Voices" in U.S. schools, enabling students to create digital Holocaust museums.
Raised in poverty between France and the UK, Bernard self-funded his work. His creations, hailed as "sobering gameplay" by The Economist, aim to educate future generations.
Michal Cotler-Wunsh
Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Cotler-Wunsh is an expert in antisemitism, human rights, law, and Zionism, and serves as Israel's Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism. She has held various leadership roles in Israel's Knesset, including chairing key committees on Israel-Diaspora relations and drug use. Cotler-Wunsh co-founded the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism and is a prolific speaker and writer on these issues. She holds law degrees from the Hebrew University and McGill University and lives in Ra’anana, Israel with her family.
Siavosh Derakhti
Founder & Chairman, UMAF – Young People against Antisemitism & Xenophobia, Sweden
As a young Malmö resident and Muslim, Derakhti had to witness how his childhood friend and best friend who was Jewish had to experience Antisemitism at an early age. A few years later when Derakhti was in high school and saw the increase in Antisemitism, he decided to make a difference in Malmö by organizing study trips to holocaust memorial
and building bridges with increased understanding between Malmö's young people from different cultural backgrounds.
Eduard Freudmann
Visual Artist, Austria
Freundmann develops projects with a focus on performativity, installation and public space. Self-reflexivity, critical knowledge production and political contextualization are the basis for his artistic practice which deals with the politics of commemoration and history, questions regarding archives, and the dilemma of the mediatization of the Shoah.
Dr. Jonathan Harmat
Senior Advisor in the Employment and Integration Administration in the City of Copenhagen, Denmark
Dr. Harmat's areas of expertise are racism, discrimination, hate crimes and extremism. He holds a Ph.d. in Political Philosophy from Copenhagen Business School and was responsible for the Danish part of the European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights Second survey on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in the EU.
Dr. Christopher Heim
Department of Sport Pedagogy and Didactics at the Institute of Sports
Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Dr. Heim's research focuses on empirical studies in school sports, the
development of fundamental motor skills, and the promotion of social education and personal growth in sports- related settings. In recent years, his work has also explored the issue of antisemitism in German football, contributing valuable insights to this critical area of study.
Dr. David Hirsh
Academic Director and CEO of London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, UK
Dr. David Hirsh has pioneered sociological research on contemporary antizionism and its links to antisemitism. He teaches Sociology, Criminology, and Human Rights at UG and MA levels. Hirsh was instrumental in founding the Engage network, opposing academic boycotts of Israel, and combating campus antisemitism in Britain. A prominent critic of Corbyn-era politics, he has significantly shaped democratic and Jewish responses to antisemitism in the UK and beyond.
Sharon Hodgson MP
Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, UK
Parliament
Hodgson, elected as an MP in 2005, has held various roles, including Parliamentary Private Secretary, Government and Opposition Whip, and multiple Shadow Ministerial positions (2010–2021). In 2021, she became PPS to Sir Keir Starmer, now Prime Minister, and in 2023, she was appointed Chair of the House of Commons Finance Committee, overseeing budgets. She is a member of the House of Commons Commission and actively opposing antisemitism, especially following the October 7th attack
Alon Ishay
President of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JÖH)
Ishay is a member of the board of the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) since 2021 and its president since October 2023. Originally from Frankfurt am Main, he is currently studying psychology and computer science in Vienna.
Dr. Felix Klein
Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism
Dr. Klein joined the Foreign Service in 1994 after studying law in Freiburg and London. After several domestic assignments and foreign posts in Cameroon and Italy, he was Special Representative for Relations with Jewish Organisations and Antisemitism Issues at the Federal Foreign Office from 2014-2018. Dr. Klein's current position is the first of its kind. It was established in the coalition agreement amid discussions on rising antisemitism in Germany and how to effectively address it at the federal level.
Dr. Joshua Krug
Heidelberg University for Jewish Studies, Germany
Dr. Krug is a global Jewish thought leader, researcher, educator, facilitator, and poet. He double-majored in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Humanities and received his B.A. with Honors and Distinction from Yale. He completed his Masters of Divinity from Harvard, and his PhD in Education and Jewish Studies from NYU.
Roko Kursar
Deputy Mayor of the City of Malmö, Sweden
Kursar serves as First Vice Chair of the City Executive Board and is a government-appointed member of Malmö University's Board.
Born and raised in Malmö, he holds a bachelor's degree in history and previously worked at Sweden's social insurance agency. His past roles include serving on the Fosie City District Council, as well as the Sport and Leisure, Health and Care, Democracy, and Finance Committees.
Ashley Lerner
CEO of Maccabi GB, UK
Lerner is the CEO of Maccabi GB, whose focus is to strengthen the Jewish community in the UK through sports, health, and wellbeing programmes . With experience in strategic planning and large-scale project development and delivery , he is passionate about fostering community engagement and developing future leaders. Ashley also serves on advisory boards for The FA and Kick It Out, focusing on combating antisemitism.
Dr. Antonio Martino
Director for Fostering Austrian-Jewish Cultural Heritage and Combating Antisemitism, Austrian Federal
Chancellery
Martino directs the Department for “Fostering Austrian-Jewish Cultural Heritage and Combating Antisemitism” at the Austrian Federal Chancellery and is Austria’s National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism. He represents Austria in EU and international working groups and led the adoption of the 2018 EU Council Declaration on Antisemitism. A lecturer at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, Martino has published extensively on EU law and antisemitism. He is a member of AEI/ECSA Germany.
Stephan Mayer MP
Spokesperson CDU/CSU of
the Sports Committee, German Bundestag
Stephan Mayer has represented the federal constituency of Altötting / Mühldorf am Inn in the German Bundestag since 2002. He served as Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of the Interior and for Home Affairs from 2018 to 2021 and is the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's spokesperson for sport and volunteering in the current legislative period. Stephan Mayer has many years of national and international expertise in sports policy and internal security.
Dr. Daniel Miehling
Postdoctoral Researcher at The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University, USA
Dr. Miehling is specializing in the study of misinformation dissemination, contemporary antisemitism, and conspiracy narratives on social media. His interdisciplinary research combines computational social science, linguistics, and empirical methods to explore the dynamics of political communication in user-generated content. He holds a Ph.D. in General Linguistics from the Technical University of Berlin and has contributed to the
understanding of digital discourse and online radicalization.
Dr. Ariel Muzicant
President of the European Jewish Congress, Belgium
Dr. Muzicant became President of the European Jewish Congress in 2022, after serving as Vice-President since 2012. Active in Jewish life for 44 years, he has held numerous leadership roles, including President (1998–2012) and Honorary President (2012–) of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG Wien) and Austria, Founder and President of the Jewish School in Vienna (1979–1995), and President of Keren Hayessod/UJA-Austria. Currently, he is a partner at Colliers International Property Consultants.
Dorit Muzicant
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer, Austria
Muzicant has created numerous documentaries for Austria's public broadcasting channel ORF and is currently working on cinematic documentaries. Apart from her passion for filmmaking, she is a mother of four and speaks fluent German , Hebrew, Russian and English
Amb. (ret.) Emmanuel Nahshon
Representative
of the Association of Israeli Universities
Nahshon coordinates anti-academic boycott efforts for the Association of Israeli Universities Presidents. Born in France in 1961, he immigrated to Israel in 1969. After serving in the 1982 Lebanon War, he studied Law at the Hebrew University and is a member of the Israeli Bar. Nahshon joined the Foreign Ministry in 1992, serving in Venezuela, Brussels, Turkey, Germany, and Belgium. He also served as MFA spokesperson and Deputy DG for Public Diplomacy. Nahshon is married to diplomat Michal Philosoph and speaks multiple languages.
Joani Reid MP
Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, UK Parliament
Reid served eight years as a Lewisham councillor, chairing the Planning Committee and later acting as Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, where she implemented a public health approach to violent crime and established 'Lewisham for Refugees,' earning the UK's first 'Borough of Sanctuary' title. In Parliament, she chairs the APPG Against Antisemitism and serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee.
David Roet
Israel's Ambassador to Austria
Ambassador Roet became Israel's Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the UN, OSCE, and other international organizations in Vienna on September 29, 2023. Previously, he was Deputy Director General and head of the North America Division at Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overseeing US-Canada relations and Israel’s diplomatic presence in North America. He has extensive UN experience and postings in Seoul and Chicago.
Richard C. Schneider
SPIEGEL author and journalist, Germany/Israel
Schneider has been working for SPIEGEL as an author and freelance correspondent in Israel and the Palestinian territories since 2021. Until the end of 2022, Schneider was Editor-at-Large at BR/ARD German TV. He is a publicist, author and lecturer at various universities. Born in Munich, he currently lives in Tel Aviv and Munich.
Shannon Seban
Political Activist and President of Renaissance Seine-Saint-Denis, France
As an elected official in Rosny-sous-Bois, Seban advocates for unity in Europe and actively combats political and religious extremism. Having served as a key advisor to French ministers, Seban has faced significant challenges, including antisemitic violence. Recognized for her commitment to dialogue and peace among religions, she also speaks at international conferences on combating hate.
Wolfgang Sobotka
President of the Political Academy of the Austrian People’s Party
Sobotka is an Austrian teacher, conductor and politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who served as the president of the Austrian National Council from 2017 until 2024. From 2016 to 2017 Sobotka served as Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior in the governments of successive Chancellors Faymann and Kern.
Kim Robin Stoller
Director of the International
Institute for Education, Social - and Antisemitism Research (IIBSA), Germany
Stoller researches antisemitism, antisemitic actors, and strategies to combat antisemitism in Europe and Morocco. She advises institutions and media and coordinates the European Sociological Association's research network on antisemitism and racism. Stoller is the lead author of the European Commission’s Handbook on the Practical Application of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. Her book Antisemitism and the Fight Against Antisemitism in Morocco will be published next year.
Anton Tsirin
Actor and Entrepreneur, Germany
Tsirin has been involved in the management and founding of more than ten Jewish organizations for over 14 years. As the founder of Kibbuz e.V. - Center for Art, Culture and Education, and as a commissioner for art and culture, he has created a platform that brings people from different cultural backgrounds together to realize national and international projects. In 2022, the association was honored by bfdt with the first Prize for Democracy and Tolerance and nominated for the German Engagement Award.
Tomer Tzadik
Survivor, Nova Music Festival, Israel
Tzadik is 25 years old and lives in Tel Aviv. He is the older brother of two siblings. He is currently a second-year student at Tel Aviv University where he studies accounting and business managements. On October 6, Tzadik went to the Nova Festival with his friend, where he was severely injured after being shot three times in the arm. He is since then is undergoing serious therapy, physically and emotionally.
Brig. Gen. Sima Vaknin-Gil
Former Director General
of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Israel
Brig. Gen. (Res.) Vaknin-Gil, former Chief Censor of Israel and Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, is an expert in intelligence, web monitoring, antisemitism, and counter-BDS efforts. She serves as VP of Strategy and Development at ISGAP and is a board member or advisor to organizations including the Combat Antisemitism Movement, ELNET-Israel, and JAFI’s Schlichut School. Vaknin-Gil holds a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and International Relations and an M.A. in National Security Studies.
Hanna Esther Veiler
President of the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD)
Veiler is working on the topics of antisemitism, Jewish women empowerment, and remembrance culture. After completing a voluntary service in Israel in 2017, she studied art history, French literature and peace studies in Germany, France and Costa Rica. She is president of the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD), vice-president of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), a trainer in the ADL Words to Action program, Lauder Fellow at the WJC, and works as a political educator and publicist.
Constantin Winkler
Doctoral Researcher at Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research (PRIF), Germany
Winkler is a social scientist and doctoral researcher at the RadiGaMe Project at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). He investigates antisemitism and radicalization in digital gaming communities. He focuses on antisemitism research, cultural sociology, and Critical Theory
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