This week marks 90 years since the founding of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. On the 8th of August 1936, Jewish leaders from around the globe came together to form a body that would serve as the permanent diplomatic address, or foreign ministry, of the Jewish people on the international stage at a dire moment in history. The institution born that day continues to endure—and with it the promise that the Jewish people will never again be voiceless or dependent on others to speak on their behalf.

That year, 1936, was a turning point for Jewish life worldwide. The Nazi regime had consolidated its power and moved beyond rhetoric to the systematic exclusion of Jews from German society. The Nuremberg Laws had been enacted, Jewish businesses faced boycotts, and Jews had been dismissed from government jobs and the professions.

For Europe’s Jews, despair was mounting. Earlier that summer, Stefan Lux, a Czechoslovak Jewish journalist, committed suicide before the assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva to warn the world of the grave dangers of Nazi Germany’s authoritarianism, expansionism, and antisemitism. His warning—like so many others—went unanswered.

The world preferred to look away. That same summer, Nazi Germany hosted the Olympic Games and turned them into a propaganda triumph, presenting the image of a........

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