Sudden firing of longtime WJC exec explained

BY: MICHAEL S. ARNOLD JTA

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Edgar Bronfman says he dismissed Rabbi Israel Singer from the organization last week because Singer was taking money without proper authorization or documentation.


Bronfman made the allegations in a March 14 letter to European Jewish Congress President Pierre Besnainou. It came after WJC affiliates in Europe, Latin America and Israel expressed dismay about being notified in a conference call earlier that day that Singer n who had held a variety of top positions in the WJC over the past 30 years n had been fired.

Singer “helped himself to cash from the WJC office, my cash,” Bronfman wrote in the letter, a copy of which JTA obtained. “We thought we had that all cleared up, and then we discovered that he was playing the same game in Israel, taking cash from the office and never accounting for it.”

He continued, “The final blow came when we discovered that he was playing games with his hotel bills in Jerusalem.

“Please understand that this was much harder on me than anyone else,” Bronfman wrote. “It took me many weeks of crying to find out I was so badly used by a man I used to love.”

The latest developments come as the fallout from Singer’s abrupt dismissal last week continue to roil the Jewish world. Singer has been a major figure in Jewish life over the past three decades. A former chairman and secretary-general of the WJC n and a top official of the Claims Conference and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, positions that don’t appear to be affected by the WJC imbroglio n he played a major role in winning billions of dollars from European banks and governments in restitution for victims of the Holocaust.

He also helped uncover the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, a former Austrian president and United Nations secretary-general.

Attempts to reach Singer on Tuesday through his attorney Stanley Arkin were unsuccessful. On Monday, before JTA received the letter, Arkin had said: “Israel Singer has much to say and at the appropriate time will make sure that history will chronicle with accuracy the story of this organization and the people who worked with him.”

Officials at the Claims Conference told JTA that Singer’s status at the WJC has no bearing on his role there at least until July, when new directors and officers are elected.

The affair has brought to a head accusations by WJC affiliates that the organization suffers from a lack of transparency and democracy. Bronfman’s letter was intended to quiet unease among WJC affiliates over the way Singer was terminated, but several sources from WJC affiliates told JTA off-the-record that they found the letter unconvincing.

Israeli WJC officials, for their part, were incensed by Bronfman’s announcement on March 14 that Bobby Brown, director-general of the Israel branch, had been fired and the branch’s funding cut off.

Singer has been under a cloud since the revelation several years ago that he secretly transferred $1.2 million of WJC money to a Swiss bank account. The money subsequently was returned, but critics say the transfer was never fully explained.

JTA Editor Lisa Hostein and Staff Writer Ben Harris in New York and Correspondents Dinah Spritzer in Prague and Florencia Arbiser in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

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