The United Nations World Conference Against Racism was supposed to confront hatred. Instead, it became notorious for something else entirely.

Held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, the conference perversely earned notoriety as the setting for shocking attacks against Israel and Jews. Convened as a conference against racism, Durban instead became a conference of racism—against Israel and the Jewish people.

In this episode of the Conversations with B’nai B’rith Podcast, CEO Dan Mariaschin revisits that moment with Richard Heideman, honorary president of B’nai B’rith, who served as the organization’s president from 1998 to 2002. In August 2001, Heideman served as head of the B’nai B’rith delegation to Durban, witnessing firsthand how the ideas unleashed there continue to reverberate a quarter-century later.

Their conversation explores why Durban still matters—and how what happened there helps explain the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism we are confronting today.