Email to Mr Ronald Lauder, Chair of World Jewish Congress

Please Send An Email to Mr Ronald Lauder, Chair of World Jewish Congress

(This letter was taken from an old page on the helpbeth.org site)

In a recent interview, Mr Ronald Lauder, chair of World Jewish Congress, gave a speech urging people to "speak out" and ´not remain silent´ in the face of suffering and injustice:



The "Mission Statement" on the WJC website states: "The World Jewish Congress seeks, among other things... to secure the rights, status and interests of Jews and Jewish communities and to defend them wherever they are denied, violated or threatened."

We now ask that the WJC step in to act against the injustice and violation of Human Rights of the Schlesinger Twins in Vienna.

Please send the email below to info@worldjewishcongress.org and wjc@wjc.co.il and encourage as many people as you can to do the same.

Thank you.



SUBJECT: Austrian Injustice Calls WJC to “Speak Out”

Dear Mr Lauder,

I was impressed by your recent feature on CBN News where you vehemently stated "We [The Jewish People] will no longer be silent [in the face of injustice]".

As chair of World Jewish Congress, as a previous US ambassador to Austria, and under the backdrop of the tremendous contribution that the Lauder Foundation is making to the revival and growth of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, it is with great sadness that the scandalous case of the Schlesinger twins is brought to your attention.

By a court order that has shocked and outraged communities around the world, twin boys Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger were just 2 years, 2 months old when they were snatched from their British mother Beth (who taught in the Lauder Business School in Vienna) after Viennese judge Susanne Göttlicher favored the local Austrian father for custody. This ruling was based entirely on one now-discredited psychologist report, and visiting rights for the mother is restricted to a few pitiful hours a week. The children are denied overnight and weekend stays with their mother without any justification whatsoever.

Despite submitting reports stating that the children have been self-harming and significantly developmentally delayed, the Lauder Chabad Kindergarten, where the children attend, is illegally preventing access to the mother to discuss the children's welfare with the teachers.

A recent statement from the Board of Deputies of British Jews has described the case as "a serious miscarriage of justice" and "a stain on the reputation of Austria.”.

We ask that you, as chair of World Jewish Congress, make your own investigations and do whatever you can to help these two traumatised little boys enrolled in your institution, who have been denied their mother for no good reason. Samuel and Benjamin are innocent children without a voice of their own.

As you so eloquently stated: "One of the things we are seeing over and over again is that when you talk out, you fight back, people react”. We urge you to raise your voice on this humanitarian issue of great concern.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Mpilo Tutu

Yours