Borussia Dortmund address the fight against anti-Semitism at the United Nations | OneFootball

Football offers an effective platform to combat anti-Semitism, educate people about the Holocaust and preserve its memory, said leading representatives of the diplomatic, sporting and Jewish communities at the event, which was entitled “Leveraging Football to Counter Anti-Semitism and Promote Holocaust Remembrance”.

“I've often spoken about our social commitment and our fight against racism and anti-Semitism,” said Borussia Dortmund Managing Director Carsten Cramer, who continued: “Sometimes I'm asked why we do it. The answer is: because we can.”

“Borussia Dortmund attach great importance to commemorating the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism,” said Cramer, adding: “And we also took a clear stance after 7 October 2023 – in solidarity with those who were affected and alongside the Jewish community in Germany and around the world.”

Vice-President of the WJC, Maram Stern, who grew up in Germany and is the son of Holocaust survivors, said he appreciated the World Jewish Congress' relationship with Borussia Dortmund: “The club has served as a catalyst for much of the work on anti-Semitism and remembrance in football.”

Virginia Gamba, the acting UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, said: “To counter hate speech, we need to strengthen the ties that bind us together as a community, like sport for example.” She also pointed out that football appeals equally to people from all walks of life, regardless of nationality, income and other factors.

Ayelet Epstein, whose 21-year-old son Netta and other relatives and friends were killed in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October 2023, described how her son loved to follow the top European clubs, including Borussia Dortmund. Since his death, BVB have developed a number of initiatives to raise awareness of Netta's story and bring healing to communities in southern Israel through sport. “People who come from different cultures and speak different languages are united and connected through their love of sport and football,” said Epstein, adding: “For this reason, sport in general and football in particular give me hope and can be a tool and a platform to change this world.”

Epstein was introduced by Daniel Lörcher, Borussia Dortmund's Anti-Discrimination Officer, and Dr. Andreas Kahrs, who runs the NGO What Matters. Their organisation works closely with the WJC and BVB, and has spearheaded many of the club's initiatives to combat anti-Semitism.

“Through our donation to Yad Vashem and our financial contribution to the construction of a building that preserves artefacts from the Nazi era for posterity, Borussia Dortmund took a major step in 2019 towards making our commitment to combating anti-Semitism accessible to the general public. That was a very conscious decision at the time,” said Daniel Lörcher. “After 7 October, we directly invited survivors of the Hamas attack on Israel to Dortmund and took part in the “Bring them home” campaign. We can't wait to welcome the hostages who return to Israel to SIGNAL IDUNA PARK at some point.”

Yfat Barak-Cheney, the WJC Director of International Affairs and the Executive Director of the WJC Institute for Technology and Human Rights, who moderated the event, said that football is both a “mirror of society” and a vehicle for change.

Ambassador Thomas Zahneisen explained that Germany has a special responsibility due to its history and called it “a living moral obligation towards the present and the future”.