Mark Weitzman is currently Chief Operating Officer of the World Jewish Restitution Organization where he plays a leading role in WJRO’s advocacy and negotiations efforts to recover Jewish properties in Europe, to foster memory of the Holocaust and to counter Holocaust distortion. He was previously Director of Government Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is a member of the official US delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Authority (IHRA) where he chaired the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial and the Working Group on Holocaust Museums and Memorials and spearheaded IHRA’s 2016 adoption of the Working Definition of Antisemitism and he was also the lead author of IHRA’s Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion which was adopted by IHRA in 2013.
Mr. Weitzman has testified in the U.S. Congress, met with world leaders including UN Secretary-Generals Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and Antonio Guterres and been a featured speaker at three UN conferences on antisemitism and extremism. He was one of the Jewish leaders to meet with Popes Benedict and Francis on their US visits and had an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Mr. Weitzman has lectured and presented at international political and scholarly conferences throughout North America, Europe and Israel, as well as in South America, Africa and Australia.
