NEW YORK — Israel’s prime minister has nominated former Soviet dissident and close political ally Natan Scharansky for the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Once that would have made him a shoo-in for the job, but now some of the organization’s Diaspora-based lay leaders think they should be making the decision.
After several weeks of speculation, Benjamin Netanyahu publicly tapped Scharansky to chair the Jewish Agency’s executive committee.
The spot became vacant when Ze’ev Bielski left the organization in November to run for the Israeli parliament.
The Israeli press lauded Scharansky as the perfect candidate for the job.
Jewish Agency officials in Israel hailed him as a Jewish hero who could help attract major donors to an organization that has cut tens of millions of dollars from its budget cuts as funds from one of its primary backers — the federations — shrunk significantly.
“We’ve always had politicians, but now we could have someone of world stature who is accepted into the White House and is accepted all over the world,” one Israeli-based Jewish Agency insider told JTA.
“He’s been a man of stature, a freedom fighter — whatever adjective you want to give. Now the Jewish Agency is catapulted into world news, not only into Jewish news.”
But some of the agency’s leaders in North America are voicing concerns that Netanyahu’s announcement could undercut their plan to de-politicize the chairman position and keep this key decision in the hands of the organization.
At stake is control over a storied but struggling organization that served as the pre-state Jewish government in Palestine and later played the lead role in facilitating immigration to the new Jewish state.
Though its budget has steadily declined, the Jewish Agency remains the largest recipient of charitable dollars from the federation system, receiving about $140 million per year.
Scharansky’s backers see him as a potential rainmaker who could attract new sources of financial support. But several of the key proponents of reform at the Jewish Agency fear that the perception of an overly political selection process will hurt efforts to boost support from federations and raise funds from other Diaspora sources.
Several North American philanthropists — notably Charles Bronfman and Bobby Goldberg — have long complained that the Israeli prime minister seemed free to reserve the chairmanship for political allies.
Jewish Agency officials have acknowledged that the perception has been a stumbling block to attracting new donors, and are in the end stages of a five-year process of revamping the agency’s governance structure.
A key component of the proposed reforms is making the prime minister more a consultant to a nominating committee comprised of members of the Jewish Agency’s board of governors.
That, supporters of reform say, would put the choice of who should run the organization back into the hands of its primary funders.
The plan was formalized at November meetings of the agency’s board of governors and was expected to be ratified at the Jewish Agency assembly, June 21-23, in Jerusalem.
Lay leaders have said the process of nominating a new leader had been in “suspended animation” until after the assembly.
Moshe Vigdor, the Jewish Agency’s director general, has been running the organization in the interim.
Netanyahu may have made a preemptive move to put in place his longtime political ally.
Netanyahu even may have pressured Scharansky, who heads the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies — a position for which he was hand-picked by its funder, billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson — to take the Jewish Agency job and use it as a stepping-stone to Israel’s presidency, the Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month.
Scharansky had made an attempt to become the Jewish Agency leader in 2005.
Shortly after quitting the Knesset in protest of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, he ran against Zev Bielski, Sharon’s pick for the job, and lost.
One US-based Jewish Agency lay leader told JTA on the condition of anonymity that Netanyahu announced his decision without first consulting Richard Pearlstone, the Jewish Agency’s top lay leader.
Pearlstone declined comment.
Aides to Scharansky and Netanyahu did not return messages.
Jewish Agency officials said that Netanyahu was scheduled to speak with Pearlstone via telephone on Monday, April 20 — two days after making it official that Scharansky was his choice.
Joe Kanfer, the chairman of United Jewish Communities, which annually funnels $140 million into the Jewish Agency’s budget, said:
“We have been working for quite a while on new governance processes that will strengthen the Jewish Agency and feel that any position should be filled according to those governance processes.”
After years of seeing the chairmanship go to Israeli politicians, some Jewish Agency lay leaders in North America were hoping to find a professional nonprofit worker to run the organization.
Steven Nasatir, head of the Chicago federation, which gives more money than any other to the Jewish Agency, said he is not concerned.
“Scharansky is a hero of the Jewish people. As someone who watched as he served on the agency’s board of governors before he went into government, I think it is wonderful that he is willing to sacrifice himself to be considered for the job.”
