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Friday June 15, 2007

WJC looks to future with Lauder

jta

With the election of Ronald Lauder as its interim president, the World Jewish Congress hopes to put aside years of turmoil from political infighting and allegations of financial mismanagement.

Lauder, 63, the cosmetics heir and president of the Jewish National Fund, defeated Mendel Kaplan, the South African steel magnate and former chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, in a 59-17 vote Sunday, June 10, of the organization’s board of governors.

Lauder succeeds Edgar Bronfman, who retired Sunday after serving nearly 30 years as president. The board of governors overwhelmingly voted in Bronfman’s son, Matthew, as its chair.

Young Israeli reformer Einat Wilf and nuclear physicist Vladimir Hertzberg received no votes.

The WJC is best known for securing billions in Holocaust restitution funds and fighting anti-Semitism, but its reputation has suffered as a result of the turmoil of the past several years. It also has experienced a 33 percent decline in fundraising over the first quarter of 2007 and faces an ongoing audit by the IRS

In March, Edgar Bronfman fired his longtime powerbroker and friend, Rabbi Israel Singer, amid accusations of financial improprieties. The firing and subsequent announcement of Bronfman’s retirement led to intense political infighting among those jockeying for the organization’s top lay spot.

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