Robert Goot re-elected as World Jewish Congress Policy Council Co-Chair and Steering Committee member
The 16th World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly has voted to re-elect Robert Goot SC, Deputy President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), as Co-Chair of the organization’s Policy Council and a member of its Steering Committee.
Robert Goot
The World Jewish Congress is the international organization representing Jewish communities in 103 countries to governments, parliaments and organizations. The WJC Plenary Assembly takes place every four years and brings together delegates from WJC-affiliated Jewish communities and organizations around the world to elect WJC leadership and set policy for the years ahead. Goot was awarded 76.7 percent of the vote.
Congratulating Mr Goot on his re-election, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder, who was re-elected to a four-year term as the organization’s President, said, “I congratulate Robert on his re-election and look forward to continuing to work together with him to protect the future of the Jewish people in Australia and around the world. He has been an important and most valuable member of the WJC leadership for many years. I am delighted that he will continue to play a pivotal role in our organization’s ongoing defence of Jewish communities across the globe against resurgent, often violent antisemitism.”
In his remarks, Goot expressed his thanks to the Plenary Assembly delegates for “having confidence in my work and re-electing me to the position of the Co-Chair of the Policy Council.”
Sounding the alarm about the recent surge in antisemitism in the wake of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, Goot referred to antisemitic pro-BDS efforts calling for a boycott of the Jewish state, drawing moral equivalence between the actions of a democratic state discharging its duty to protect its citizens and the actions of terrorist groups dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state and the expulsion of its Jewish citizens.
He also used the opportunity to pay tribute to his close friend, lifelong Australian-Jewish advocate and former WJC Honorary Vice President, Isi Leibler, who passed away in April:
“I want to take a few minutes to honour the memory of an outstanding leader of the Jewish people who passed away last month. Isi’s lifetime of Jewish leadership was truly extraordinary in its vision, intensity and impact in Australia and overseas. He was an educated, passionate and articulate Jewish advocate of the highest order. He was incisive and uncannily perceptive. And in certain key respects, he changed how we think and act as Jewish communities.”
Mr. Goot has played a leading role in the formulation of WJC policy since first being elected as a member of the WJC Executive Committee and as WJC Vice President in 2009. He has served in a number of key roles including as Chair of the WJC Resolutions Committee and as a member of the WJC’s Constitutional Review Committee in 2009 and 2017 and currently also serves as Chair of the WJC Credentials Commission and a member of the WJC Budget & Finance Commission.
Mr. Goot, who resides in Sydney, has been a lifelong advocate on behalf of the Jewish people in his native Australia and around the world.
He currently serves as Deputy President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the elected representative organization of the Australian Jewish community, having been ECAJ President from 2007 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018. In addition, he is currently active as an Hon. Life Member of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies (since 1986) and a Life Patron and Chairman of Trustees of Moriah College (since 1999) and for many years has been actively involved in the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, for which he is currently a member of the Board of Directors and a member of the Allocations Committee.
Over the last 55 years, he has held a number of other leadership positions in the Australian Jewish community, including: Chairman of the Australian Campaign for the Rescue of Australian Jewry (1972-1980); President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (1978-1982); President of Moriah College (1989-1996); and President of the Sydney Jewish Museum (1996-2000).
