Moshe Kantor

Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (born 8 September 1953) is a Russian-Israeli billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and Jewish communal leader known for founding and chairing the Acron Group, a major global producer of mineral fertilizers, and for his long tenure as president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC). Kantor graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1976 with a degree in systems engineering and earned a PhD in spacecraft automatic control systems in 1981 before entering business in the late 1980s with a computer trading firm, later expanding into telecommunications and acquiring interests in the fertilizer sector that formed the basis of Acron in the 1990s. As EJC president since 2007—re-elected to a fifth term in May 2025 after resigning in 2022 amid UK sanctions linked to his perceived proximity to the Russian government—Kantor has prioritized combating antisemitism, fostering Jewish revival in Europe through the European Jewish Fund he established in 2006, and promoting Holocaust remembrance via the World Holocaust Forum Foundation founded in 2005. His initiatives also extend to nuclear non-proliferation as founder of the International Luxembourg Forum in 2007 and to tolerance advocacy through the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation launched in 2008, reflecting a focus on global security and interfaith dialogue amid his business success and Israeli citizenship.