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Founder

Dr. Moshe Kantor

Dr. Moshe Kantor is a prominent public figure, international philanthropist and scientist. He is known worldwide for his fight against antisemitism, racism, neo-Nazism, negationism and intolerance and for his commitment to Holocaust education and remembrance. The prosperity, freedom and security of the Jewish people are his first priorities.

In 2005, Dr. Moshe Kantor founded the World Holocaust Forum Foundation (WHF), established to support Holocaust remembrance activities for the sake of preserving the historical memory of nations all over the world and preventing future tragedies. The same year, he initiated and organised, in partnership with the European Jewish Congress, the First International ‘Let My People Live!’ Forum in Krakow, Poland, to mark 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy, the Foundation organised the Second Forum in 2006 in Kiev. The Third and the Fourth Forums took place in 2010 and 2015 respectively and were attended by leaders and representatives of European institutions and official delegations from all over the world.

The Forum has acquired great support from the European Union institutions and Heads of State as well as high-ranking politicians and distinguished personalities. It has become a tradition to organise the Forum on historical dates and sites related to the Shoah, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Babi Yar, and Terezin.

Jewish Leadership

Moshe Kantor has been the president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) since 2007, having been re-elected to the position in 2008, in 2012 and in 2016. The EJC was established in 1986 to give a unified voice to Jewish communities around Europe, representing their common interests and concerns, but at the same time allowing smaller Jewish communities a wider platform to express their specific needs. The EJC acts as a forum between communities, where ideas can be exchanged easily, and internal elections and referenda decide future leadership, projects and goals. Since its establishment, the EJC has developed and expanded in order to meet the constantly changing and enlarging European Union (EU).

Kantor’s involvement in promoting Jewish life also extends to being the key founder and Chairman of the European Jewish Fund (EJF), which focuses on promoting Jewish life throughout Europe by supporting programmes that reinforce Jewish identity and Jewish pride, especially by re-connecting young people with their rich and vital Jewish heritage.

In 2010, Yad Vashem nominated Moshe Kantor as Member of the Directorate and in 2018 he became Chancellor of Yad Vashem Council.

In light of rising antisemitism worldwide, he initiated in 2010 the creation of the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry in Tel Aviv University and the Moshe Kantor database for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. The Kantor Center’s team, headed by Prof. Dina Porat since its inception, provides an academic framework for research and awareness raising in three main directions: the monitoring and analysis of antisemitism worldwide; domestic and international legislation for equality; and the evolving developments in contemporary Jewish European demography and culture – all areas in which Kantor has been investing remarkable efforts, and reached notable achievements, on the national and international levels. The Kantor Center publishes annually the ‘Antisemitism Worldwide Report’ recognised internationally and used by European Union institutions and international organisations as one of the main sources of information and reliable research on the trends, sources and manifestations of antisemitism in the world.

In 2012, Moshe Kantor launched the Security and Crisis Center (SACC) programme, which deals with the security and crisis management of European Jewish communities. Due to the aggravation of the threat, the programme expanded into a new entity ‘SACC by EJC’, with the headquarters in Brussels.

During the 14th Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) that took place in Budapest in 2013, Kantor was elected Chairman of the WJC Policy Council. He was re-elected in the same capacity at the 15th WJC Plenary Assembly that was held in New York in April 2017.

Nuclear non-proliferation

The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe founded by Moshe Kantor in 2007 is today the largest non-governmental expert institution of its kind uniting leading world-renowned specialists on non-proliferation of nuclear arms, materials and delivery vehicles.

The Luxembourg Forum’s activities are aimed at providing a platform for discussing nuclear security and non-proliferation issues, as well as elaborating proposals and recommendations to politicians and diplomats regarding the reinforcement of nuclear security. It works to prevent trivialization of the nuclear threat in the modern world and aims to provide trustworthy information on the current situation in states and regions of concern (the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula and South Asia).

Tolerance and reconciliation

Moshe Kantor is also the founder and president of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR). Created in 2008, ECTR is a non-governmental organisation composed of former European Heads of State, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other world-renowned individuals for their achievements in promoting tolerance. From 2008 until 2014, ECTR was co-chaired by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of Poland. Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has assumed this position since 2015. The ECTR was established to monitor European countries’ adherence to principles of democracy and tolerance and to develop practical initiatives aimed at promoting mutual understanding and reconciliation between peoples and cultures.

Philanthropic activities

Within the scope of his philanthropic activities, he is involved in numerous organisations in the following capacities: Trustee and Life President of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Patron and Honorary Life President of the Kantor King Solomon School, Patron of the Community Security Trust (CST), Patron of Jewish Care, Vice-President of Jewish Leadership Council, Member of Royal Opera House Board of Honorary Directors, Ambassador of Royal National institute of Blind People, etc.

Art

Moshe Kantor created the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery (MAGMA) in 2001 on the basis of his private collection. The Museum aims at showing the contribution that Jewish artists made to the world’s avant-garde, modernist and post-modernist art; in other words to the art of the 20th century.

Honors and awards

Moshe Kantor received the following awards: Order of Friendship (Russia, 1998), Order of Merit (Poland, 2005), Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraine, 2006), Order of Leopold (Belgium, 2009), Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (France, 2012), the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy, 2013), Grand Cross of the National Order For Merit (Romania, 2014), Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (France, 2015) and the Order of Honour (Russia, 2016), the Medal Deserved for Tolerance by the Ecumenical Foundation Tolerance (2011) and the European Jewish Leadership Award (2012). In addition, he received an honorary doctorate from Tel-Aviv University (2004).

Business activity

Moshe Kantor graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (1976) and has a PhD in Spacecraft Automatic Control Systems (1981).

Kantor heads the publicly traded Acron Group, one of the leading mineral fertiliser producers and distributors in the world. He purchased the first asset of the Acron Group, a state-owned nitric acid-based fertiliser plant in Russia (formerly named Azot), in 1993.

Family

Moshe Kantor is married to Anna and has four sons and a daughter.