Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel and Middle East region and one of Israel's most prominent philanthropists, will speak at the Israel Hayom summit in Manhattan on December 2. The son of Holocaust survivors – whose father fought in Israel's War of Independence – Adams made aliyah nearly a decade ago from Montreal and calls himself "Israel's ambassador at large," bringing international icons like Lionel Messi and Madonna to Israel and organizing the Giro d'Italia bicycle race, which attracted an estimated 1.3 billion viewers worldwide.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Adams discussed how October 7 shifted his work, the surge in global antisemitism, and Israel's failures in the information war. "I was not in Israel on October 7," he said, and described his reaction upon learning the news as "horror and shock."
Q: Do you donate differently prior to and post October 7?
"I'm not one of those October 8 Jews" who found their reawakening after the attacks. Adams said his commitment to Jewish causes never wavered. "The lion's share has always been to give Jewishly, because if we don't look after ourselves, nobody else is going to look after us. So that didn't change at all."
What did change was where he directed his efforts. Before October 7, Adams organized large-scale international events that attracted hundreds of millions of viewers. But "during a time of war, of course, you can't be doing events to show the good name of Israel abroad."
Instead, Adams pivoted to supporting Israel's south. In 2024, he donated $100 million to Ben-Gurion University to help rebuild the southern cities of Israel after the October 7 Hamas-led attack. He wanted to show evacuated residents "that they have a future in the south" and demonstrate to the world "that we are here to stay."
In 2025, he donated $100 million to Soroka Medical Center to help rebuild the hospital damaged by Iranian missiles. His goal is to create "the most complete, most modern hospital in the entire country and one of the most in the entire region."
Q: What trends have you seen in North America in relation to antisemitism?
Adams, who travels extensively in his official capacity, expressed shock at the extent of antisemitism that emerged after October 7. "Honestly, I didn't believe it still existed," he said. "The events of October 7 didn't create this antisemitism. They revealed a latent antisemitism that many of us, myself included, didn't realize was lying in wait for us."
He described witnessing "antisemitic behavior that we haven't seen since the 1930s" that is "openly expressed, not sufficiently condemned." In his native Montreal, Adams said extreme Islamists and "their useful idiots" – "leftists, anarchists, whatever you want to call them" – have taken over streets, blocked bridges and roads, and displayed "hideous symbols like swastikas."
The phenomenon spans the political spectrum. When asked about antisemitism coming from both right and left, including figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, Adams was blunt: "Tucker Carlson, when he was fired from Fox, he wasn't always this virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic... He needed a job. To me, I look at Tucker Carlson as a paid operative."
Adams attributes the coordinated nature of anti-Israel activism to what he calls "the axis of hate" –principally Qatar, with Iranian money and Chinese involvement through TikTok. He pointed to the identical tents that appeared on campuses nationwide: "Somebody was buying those tents. Somebody had organized this... They have operatives everywhere."
Still, Adams believes "the vast majority of people are revolted by this, support the Jewish people, and are not antisemitic." The problem, he said, is "this very, very vocal and noisy, organized and paid-for minority is doing us real harm."
Q: What do you think of the current Israeli hasbara? Is it effective?
Adams stresses Israel must improve its public diplomacy effort. "The Qataris have been at this for 20 years. They started Al-Jazeera about 20 years ago... So we have 20 years to catch up. We are up against a trillion dollars of propaganda and conspiracy against us worldwide," Adams said, which includes "infiltrating western university campuses, paying opinion leaders like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, as well as on the left."
When asked about concrete steps Israel can take, Adams acknowledged technological solutions beyond his expertise but emphasized the need to "create content that can reach people at the level that they will consume it" and "use technology as a force multiplier."
"We need to at least fight them to a draw," he said. "And if we keep going in this direction and we lose the youth, we have no future because they are our future leaders."
Adams expressed confidence that Israel can succeed if it makes hasbara a priority: "We're the startup nation. When we have priorities, we win at everything that we do."
The 11th million
At the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration summit in Tel Aviv last month, Adams announced an ambitious goal: bringing more than one million new immigrants to Israel from around the world.
Adams framed the challenge in terms of push and pull factors. "There is a push factor happening with the antisemitism in the Western world," he said, along with "a reawakening of some Jewish sentiment of identity, the 'October 8th syndrome' if you will." But pushing alone is insufficient. "We need the pull factor in Israel, to make it as appealing and attractive as possible, and ensure that they can live full and rich lives, including employment and housing."
Adams said his goal is to lead a campaign similar to what happened with the million immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, "which really changed and improved the country." He believes that one million immigrants "from Western Europe and North America would ensure a pluralistic, democratic Israel for the indefinite future."
