B’nai B’rith President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International—which mobilized the largest multinational Jewish delegation at the August 31 to September 8, 2001, World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa—is launching a year of efforts to highlight that event’s notorious anti-Semitism in advance of the 25th commemoration of the United Nations hatefest.

B’nai B’rith International Honorary President Richard D. Heideman has been named chair of the 25th commemorative initiative. Heideman led the Jewish caucus at Durban in 2001 and ultimately the walkout by the U.S. and Israeli ambassadors, B’nai B’rith and the Jewish and other organizations from the U.N. conference.

Shocking demonstrations of anti-Jewish animus

The conference was marred by shocking demonstrations of anti-Jewish animus only at times camouflaged as anti-Zionism. Its official outcome document singled out Israel alone—the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy—for implied characterization as “racist”—a throwback to the U.N.’s previous Zionism = Racism resolutions from the 1970s.  An accompanying international forum of non-governmental organizations featured even more strident vilification, with Jewish attendees assailed both at the venue and in the surrounding environs.

Thoughts from B’nai B’rith Honorary President Richard D. Heideman

“As B’nai B’rith International president, I had the responsibility of leading our global delegation to the 2001 United Nations Conference on Racism. On the grounds of the U.N. NGO forum we experienced a true hatefest against Israel and the Jewish people. We were pushed, prodded, maligned, accused, assaulted and insulted. There was not an ounce of respect for the State of Israel, nor for the Jewish organizations which gathered from throughout the world. The NGO forum and the main U.N. Durban conference itself set out a path of multi-pronged hatred that has been the blueprint for the past 25 years: malign and accuse Israel; make it clear that the Jews and Israel are guilty of being ‘an apartheid, racist, criminal Zionist state and people that must be rejected by all’; launch wave after wave of assaults, on the ground, through terror, through war, through diplomatic means, through boycotts—diplomatic, academic, economic and in the court of public opinion; make it acceptable to simply hate Israel and to demonstrate the total rejection of Israel at the U.N., on campuses, in communities, by governments and in the court of public opinion.

In that context, we walked out of Durban, but we have not been silent. The seeds of hate were planted in Durban and have continued to grow wildly, foraging our communities and threatening our pride and very existence. B’nai B’rith International has continued to speak loudly, clearly and boldly, standing with the State of Israel and our global Jewish communities. We chaired the Durban commemorative programs in 2009, 2011 and 2020 highlighting the wrong-headedness of Durban and of the United Nations’ rampant acts, anti-Semitic attacks and discriminatory pronouncements targeting Israel, Israeli elected government leadership and Zionism itself.

On August 31, 2025, we will begin a year of B’nai B’rith International-led programming of education, advocacy and leadership, focusing on both the lessons learned from Durban and the lessons still to be learned.

Our leadership is more important today than it was 25 years ago and perhaps even more than at our founding 182 years ago. Let B’nai B’rith be the torch that enlightens America and enlightens the world.”

Leading global Jewish response

Through advocacy targeting world leaders, op-eds and formal interventions at the U.N., B’nai B’rith has led the global Jewish response to efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel by maligning it as “racist” and even worse. More broadly, with a dedicated Office of United Nations Affairs and accredited representation at U.N. agencies worldwide, B’nai B’rith has been at the forefront of Jewish engagement with, and leadership at, the world body since 1945.

Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels on the hijacking of International forums

“Decades before the wild surge of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence that we see today, Durban symbolized for the Jewish community the hijacking of international forums—ones dealing with the fight against bigotry, no less—for political discrimination and incitement against Israelis,” B’nai B’rith Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels said.

“The 2001 ordeal came 10 years after the rescinding of the U.N. General Assembly’s infamous ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution—which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action continues today to be singled out for affirmation at every session of the wrong-headed U.N. Human Rights Council. The takeaway is clear: Israel’s adversaries will coopt and weaponize any cause they can, to the detriment of truly credible and impartial promotion of peace and human dignity.”

B’nai B’rith will stand in the forefront of again urging the world’s democracies to decline participating in U.N. “celebrations” of the Durban hatefest, encouraging them to instead recommit to respecting Israel as a thriving democracy, contributing positively to the world, and to stand with the United States and Israel in seeking to truly combat the hatred, bigotry, terror, racism and denial of human rights throughout the globe.

For resources from our commemoration of Durban’s 20th and prior commemorative initiatives led by B’nai B’rith International, visit here.