After roughly a week of campaigning for a tougher U.S. response to rising global anti-Semitism, billionaire Ronald Lauder was preparing for his final public speech in D.C. on Wednesday — a lecture later that night at Georgetown University centered on how Jews and Christians should come together against radical Islamic groups.

It’s been a busy trip: On Tuesday, Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, testified before a House of Representatives subcommittee onthe surge in attacks against Jews in Europe, and his schedule has been dotted with other high-profile meetings with top Senate officials, Russian diplomats and Vice President Joe Biden.

As he sits in a meeting room at the ritzy Willard Intercontinental Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House, he seems energized by a week spent rallying Congressmen to support Israel — and pushing them to attempt shutting down any nuclear deal with Iran that he would find unfavorable for the Jewish communities he lobbies for from about 100 countries.

Lauder has focused on diplomacy for decades and was the U.S. Ambassador to Austria from 1986 to 1987. But his estimated $3.9 billion fortune comes largely from a stake in the Estee Lauder cosmetics conglomerate his mother founded. Sensing a market research opportunity, he was quick to ask me if I use a top coat after doing my nails, and what I think of M.A.C., an Estee Lauder brand. I sat down with him in the midst of his D.C. tour to talk about running to bomb shelters in Israel, breaking the ice with then-president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and the progress of his campaign to return art stolen by the Nazis to the rightful owners’ descendants. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

During your testimony in front of Congress, you asked “Where is the United States?” That’s a big question. What would you want to see the U.S. government actually do?

Ronald Lauder: I would like the U.S. to start being tougher with what we see. First, any school that teaches hatred toward Jews should be stopped or closed down. Any place of worship that preaches hatred of another religion or another people should be closed down. There’s freedom of speech, but freedom of speech does not give people the right to teach people hatred. Second, we shouldn’t have anything to do with countries that practice boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel. We should have nothing to do with countries that are openly anti-Semitic or openly anti-Christian. I also think that if the United Nations keeps on passing anti-Israel resolutions, I believe the U.S. should say, ‘Unless you don’t keep this up, we’ll stop paying.’ We pay a lot of the money to the U.N. through Congress.

Politically, anti-Semitism is often conflated with being anti-Israel. Do you think that helps your cause or deters it?

Lauder: I think that anti-Israel is a cover for being anti-Semitic. What starts off as anti-Israel demonstrations quickly becomes anti-Jewish. Five or seven years ago, I met Hugo Chavez, who was at that time the president of Venezuela. We sat down and I wanted to get the conversation going, and I said, ‘President Chavez, I understand you’re an anti-Semite.’ I wanted to get it going in a good way. He said to me ‘Mr. Lauder, I am not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Israeli.’ I said, ‘Let me ask you a question, ‘Who do you think lives in Israel? Martians?’ You can’t be anti-Israel and pro-jewish.