Thank you. I'm honoured to be representing the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. This, for me, is the beginning of the next step of my involvement with the Jewish world. It is an exciting stride forward, an opportunity to contribute to a community that has given so much to me and one that I am exceptionally proud to represent.

I'd like to spend the next few minutes outlining why I'm here and the vision I have for this organization under my leadership.

My decision to get more involved in the Jewish world, and in particular with the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, can be summed up with three quotes – together they encapsulate my belief in the essence of the Jewish people and the essence of our mission.

The first is by Churchill, it symbolizes my pride in the Jewish people but hints at the challenges we face. Churchill said, "Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world." Churchill, of all people, knew what it was to be formidable and remarkable.

It is the nature of our people ascribed in that quote which should inspire us to realize our goals. When the Jewish people stand united there is nothing we cannot achieve and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is a symbol of that achievement. The very existence of this organization is a testament to our ability to rebuild. We must now take the strength of the Jewish people and meet the challenges which lay before us.

For me those challenges were exposed in the starkest terms in May 2009. During a time of global economic hardship, an Austrian magazine published a photo of me on the front cover with a headline which read, Meinl's Kampf. It was, of course, an allusion to the book written by Hitler which laid out his ideology and set in motion the series of events which led to the greatest tragedy in the modern world. The Jews being blamed for an economic crisis is a classic trope. This was, in my view, a clear and public act of anti-Semitism. Yet, it went unpunished by the Austrian courts. While my case was extremely public it was sadly not unique; those of us who haven't personally suffered from anti-Semitism, at the very least know someone who has.

Anti-Semitism in modern Europe is no longer about characterizing Jews as subhuman but quite the opposite. We are evil beyond depiction and powerful beyond words. This combination of evil intent and seemingly limitless power creates a myth, a stereotype of the Jews that becomes acceptable, that is no longer confined to the dark corners of society. Hatred of Jews is dressed in polite language, in word plays and in seemingly intellectual critiques of the state of the world. That social acceptability allows anti-Semitism to seep into dinner party conversations, turn up in mainstream publications and hide behind a respectable façade. But we have seen it before and we recognize racism when we see it.

In the countries we represent in the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress we know all too well the dangers of anti-Semitism. The law in our countries protects minorities but the gap between the reality in the courts and the reality on the streets is startling. The recent attacks against Jews in Ukraine should serve as a warning to us all; we must act and act now to stop the further deterioration, the dangerous decline from an unpleasant climate to the dark days that Jews in our part of the world know only too well.

Anti-Semitism dressed up as criticism of Israel, anti-Semitism from the fist or the boot of a neo-Nazi or anti-Semitism in the form of Islamist terrorism should all be opposed, with vigor, with urgency and with strategy. We must learn the lessons which history has so cruelly taught us and act, now.

Since the rise of nationalism in Europe and Communism in the Former Soviet Union it's always been easiest to assimilate, to blend into the crowd, make no mention of your Jewish heritage and hope that when the next wave of anti-Semitism sweeps over wherever you are, it will pass you by. The second quote addresses that approach beautifully. It is by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin who so eloquently said, "If a Jew doesn’t make Kiddush, then the non-Jew will make Havdalah for him." If we don't proudly identify as Jews then others will define our Jewishness for us.

I grew up in Austria where Viennese Jews often assimilated, avoided any mention of their heritage and all too often converted to Catholicism. But it didn't work. The way for Jews to survive in Euro-Asia today is the reverse, it's to be proud of who we are. The fight against anti-Semitism will always be urgent but it must never push aside the fight to strengthen our own identity.

We represent around three and a half million Jews and my leadership will focus on their re-discovery, finding them and helping them to find themselves. The communities in the towns and in shtetls of the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were once the center of the Jewish world; Yeshiva's full of eager young students producing the greatest Jewish minds. Jewish theatre and Jewish literature. Great thinkers, philosophers, businessmen and politicians.

The Nazi genocide, immediately followed by communist rule decimated our communities and diminished in our place in the Jewish world. Many young Jews have almost no connection to their own identity having grown up in homes where no-one mentioned their Jewish lineage, their Jewish heritage. The disturbing irony of the past 70 years is that being a Jew remained something to hide, like we were the ones who ought to be ashamed of what had happened.

Growing up in Austria the mere mention of being Jewish provoked feelings of envy, looks of distrust and a sense of isolation. At school history lessons would jump from the German annexation of Austria to the end of the war, there was never time to discuss the fate of the Jews let alone Austria's role, Austria's compliance.

The stories of those lost communities, the memories of that childhood and the sense of urgency in the face of resurgent anti-Semitism are what drove me to seek to lead the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

We have an opportunity. We can re-build, re-connect and re-energise those communities, providing more educational opportunities, more social gatherings, more tzedaka for the Jewish community but also society at large. Our focus, our chazon or vision, must be greater levels of self-identification.
To put it simply more Jews feeling more Jewish.

The third quote is the one that encapsulates our sense of action. The Jewish people have never been short of words but we will be judged by what we do, not only what we say. It was a German who perhaps best summed up this Jewish sense of purpose which drives me today and which drives the Jewish people forward. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said of the Jews, “Energy is the basis of everything.  Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people of the earth…” In essence we never stop moving, we never stop striving.

My years in business and banking taught me that good strategy can never be based on standing still. We must and we will defend Jewish communities and defend Jewish interests but we must also look forward and with just as much energy as we oppose anti-Semitism be the proponents of a strong and proud Jewish identity in our region.

Rejuvenating our communities on the one hand while standing strong against anti-Semitism requires us to be proactive and engage with the world around us. Russia's influence in the world is increasing. As the influence of the European Union expands countries in our region such as Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, and Hungary find themselves at the center of one of the world's largest trading blocs and major political powerhouses.

Our role must be to engage with our governments and build productive relations. We should work to ensure that the issues of importance to us are also important to our governments. The Jewish community should make its voice heard through effective engagement in political lobbying, interfaith dialogue and cooperation with the non-governmental world.

I'd like to give one example of where this engagement can have a tangible impact. For me it is quite simply an issue of justice. And that is the return of looted art to its rightful owners. Art work which was stolen from Jews by the Nazi's and those who assisted them, and was never returned. We see it hanging in museums or sold at auctions houses and we know that it is rightfully ours. My mother has a piece of art hanging at a museum in Austria which belonged to our family. She's embarrassed to ask for it back, lest it cause resentment. Her's is not a unique situation. But we must not be ashamed to reclaim what ours; it is the governments, museums and private collectors who should be embarrassed.

The World Jewish Congress and other Jewish organisations have started the work but more needs to be done. Working alongside governments, in coordination with the art world and exerting effective pressure we should strive to return all the looted art back to the families of those who owned it. The process is far too complex, the hurdles far too great. Even those with a legitimate claim can struggle for years with little or no success.

There are some who founded their wealth upon stolen and confiscated belongings of Jews but this isn't a financial matter, it's a matter of justice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there can be no doubt that 2014 will be a crucial year for Israel and the Jewish people. The Iranian nuclear program looms over Israel while Iran's support for terrorism threatens us all. Whatever the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations both Israel and the Jewish diaspora will surely feel the impact. Rising levels of anti-Semitism only highlight the growing need for a strong relationship between Israel and the diaspora, one based on our support for the Jewish homeland and the state's support for us in times of need. While Israel debates what it means to be a Jewish state, the diaspora debates what it means to be a Jew. Israel discusses maintaining its Jewish character and we fight to maintain the Jewish identity of each and every member of our community.

Our support for the State of Israel should be loud and it should be unequivocal. Israel is today once again in its rightful place as the center of the Jewish world. Israel provides a cultural and national focus for the Jewish community. Whenever it is under attack we should unite behind it, just as it would do for us.

We should also welcome the flourishing Jewish communities in the west, particularly in the United States. They serve as a source of encouragement to us, an inspiration to build equally active, equally diverse and equally spiritually wealthy communities. The Jewish communities of Euro-Asia have a rightful role at the Jewish communal table and just as we can learn from communities in North America and Western Europe, they can learn from us.

With the unique history and identity of our communities we should strive to re-position the communities of Moscow and Kiev alongside those of New York and London. Strong Euro-Asian Jewish communities mean a strong global Jewish community. A stronger Euro-Asia Jewish Congress means a stronger World Jewish Congress.

It the formidable nature revered by Churchill, the ceaseless energy admired by Goethe and the uniqueness so powerfully highlighted by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin that should give us the confidence and sense of purpose to pursue our goals as Jews, as Jewish communities and as a Jewish people.

I look forward to working with each and every one of you this coming year, working together on our shared mission to make the Jewish people stronger and safer