World Jewish Congress president is new board member for Babi Yar memorial

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, has joined the board of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre in Kiev, Ukraine.

It is hoped the museum will open in 2023. Other board members include German Khan, deputy chair of the BYHMC Supervisory Board, former director-general of UNESCO Irina Bokova, former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, former Polish President, Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Mikhail Fridman, a co-founder of Letter One Holdings.

Mr Lauder said it was a great honour to join the board, for oversight of “what will be an extremely moving Holocaust memorial for central and eastern Europe. It is fitting that this memorial sits at Babi Yar, the site of one of the most horrific massacres carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War”. He said he hoped the planned memorial would be a place to learn tolerance and the importance of human rights.

While he was in Ukraine, Mr Lauder took part in the inaugural meeting of the Kiev Jewish Forum. He was awarded the Sheptytsky Medal for his work in deepening relations between Ukrainians and Jews. The Forum was a two day event aimed at promoting deeper ties between the Ukrainian Jewish population and world Jewry, and offering a platform for galvanising European efforts in the fight against antisemitism.