By Gary Rosenblatt
February 4, 2007
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In the year, almost to the day, since then-Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer (now governor) issued a report chastising the World Jewish Congress for fiscal improprieties and lack of accountability, the once-proud organization seems to have spent more time pursuing its perceived enemies in the Jewish community -- including this newspaper -- than fulfilling its mission of addressing "the needs and interests of Jews and Jewish communities throughout the world."
Rather than let the internal controversy that rocked the WJC die down, its leadership called further attention to its troubles by pursuing a $6 million defamation suit in Israel against Isi Leibler, a former WJC vice president who was jettisoned after blowing the whistle on the financial practices of the international organization in 2004.
That segment of the drama ended a few weeks ago when the District Court of Tel Aviv ordered the WJC to pay about $55,000 to Leibler after the organization withdrew its lawsuit. It had been pressured by affiliates in Canada, France, England and Switzerland to drop the suit, which was seen as an embarrassment and an act of retribution.
The Australian branch of the WJC officially resigned from the organization over the matter, and the Swiss this week called for the leadership associated with the scandal to step down.
That is not likely.
One of the criticisms of the WJC that has been brought to light from this controversy is that despite its international title, regional branches in Europe, Latin America, Euro-Asia, Israel, and North America, and some 400,000 donors, the WJC essentially is run by three men in New York.
They are the WJC's president for more than 25 years, Edgar Bronfman, the Seagrams heir and philanthropist; Stephen Herbits, a key business aide of Bronfman who was brought in as secretary general at the height of the scandal to restore the organization's good name; and Israel Singer, the brilliant and brash longtime chairman of the WJC, who ran the organization virtually single-handedly until the attorney general's report was issued, insisting he give up some of his duties and pay back more than $300,000 in "inappropriate disbursements" he received over the years.
From a public relations point of view, the WJC leaders have made a mess of things by prolonging rather than resolving the conflict, stirring the flames of controversy every time they seemed to have died down.
They filed suit against Leibler in Israel the same day the Spitzer report was released in New York, and last fall they sought to replace the director of their Israeli branch -- a non-governmental organization providing social services -- against the wishes of the lay leaders there.
"We are not employees of Stephen Herbits," an outraged chairman Shai Hermesh, who is a member of Knesset, told the Jerusalem Post. "They will not rule us," another board member said.
Herbits, undaunted, cut the budget of the Israeli branch by 30 percent and created another one in its stead, though the new branch is not an NGO."
Does Herbits really want to strengthen or weaken the work of the World Jewish Congress in Israel?" Hermesh asked when I spoke with him this week. He vowed to continue the fight "with New York" with the help of leaders of the Israeli government.
Herbits also gave voice to the impression that the top WJC officials were bent on lashing out at others in the Jewish community when, in an interview with New York magazine last winter, he colorfully questioned the accomplishments of other American Jewish organizations by asserting "they've got perfect governance with no f---ing accomplishments," adding: "if an investigation of Jewish organizational life takes place, I promise you that the last person standing will be Israel Singer."
Singer is still standing a year later, but not as tall. The attorney general's report, in addition to demanding Singer repay funds to the WJC, barred him from any position of "financial management or oversight."
No longer chair of the WJC governing board, Singer was appointed chair of a new WJC Policy Council, a high-level advisory group, and he continues to travel the globe, meeting with world leaders on behalf of the organization.
This prompted some, including the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot, in a lengthy piece about the WJC scandal, to question how Singer can maintain two posts charged with distributing billions of dollars in Holocaust-related funds in light of the attorney general's findings.
(Singer serves as president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and chairman of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which gives out money from Poland, Switzerland and other countries.)
Menachem Rosensaft, an attorney and former chairman of the executive committee of the American branch of the WJC, noted: "The same criteria that compelled Alan Hevesi's resignation [as comptroller of New York] should be applied to the leaders of humanitarian and not-for-profit organizations generally."
Jewish leaders who seek to exercise moral authority," he added, "should be free of even the appearance of impropriety."
(In wake of the Spitzer report, the WJC website now includes an "Ethical Standards Policy" making a similar statement; the site also includes a code of policy against conflict of interest and a code of policy sympathetic to whistleblowers.)
Singer's defenders say he is not involved in the finances of the Claims Conference or WJRO and that he has proven to be a champion of Holocaust survivors, having led the successful WJC campaign for restitution monies a decade ago.
What's more, his position of power, influence and access has made other Jewish leaders reluctant to criticize him publicly.
But top WJC officials have not been hesitant about acting against journalists they feel were unfair and overly zealous in describing the organization's problems. They have sued Tachlis, a Swiss Jewish weekly that reported aggressively on the scandal, as well as Daniel Ganzfried, a Swiss journalist who has written a number of articles on the subject and plans to write a book about it.
The leadership of the WJC also sought to bring pressure on The Jewish Week and me for articles published about the controversy that the leaders felt were biased against them. A lengthy dossier critiquing The Jewish Week's coverage and alleging that it defamed the WJC and its top officials was shown to several influential leaders of the Jewish community here, some of whom were encouraged to withdraw support for The Jewish Week or be cut off from Bronfman-related philanthropic donations.
Fortunately, as far as I know, none of the organizations or individuals gave in to the pressure.
Responding to some of these criticisms, a WJC spokesman said the defamation suit against Isi Leibler was dropped because it had "distracted" the media and others from the important work of the organization, which the WJC said includes improving "policies and procedures," reaching a "high standard of governance and transparency," and focusing on key issues like the Iranian threat, working with the Jewish communities of Argentina and Venezuela, and recruiting and training the next generation of its lay and professional leaders.
The next round of internal WJC tension is shaping up now over who will succeed Bronfman, 76, as president. Insiders say he plans to hand over the reins to his son, Matthew, who has become increasingly involved in Jewish philanthropic endeavors -- including the WJC's finance committee -- though some see such a move as exactly the wrong signal for an organization accused of lack of democracy.
Ronald Lauder has let it be known in recent days that he plans to run for the post. While viewed by some as more of the same -- another patrician mega-philanthropist -- he is also credited for cleaning up the Jewish National Fund when he took over as its lay leader a decade ago, after a high-profile case of financial mismanagement of its own.
The WJC election, whenever it takes place (no date has been set), is sure to attract widespread attention. One would hope that between now and then the group spends less time and energy on revenge against fellow Jews and more on addressing the problems faced by world Jewry, of which there is no shortage.
Reprinted with permission from The Jewish Week.
Views expressed by the author do not
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