Last update - 00:00 01/11/2007
Zionist leaders protest donors' bid to separate JA, WZO
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
World Zionist organizations are protesting the bid by prominent Jewish American donors to separate the Jewish Agency (JA) from the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
The organizations Wednesday called on JA, UJC and United Israel Appeal leaders to refrain from harming WZO and its status as the umbrella organization for immigration to Israel and international Jewish and Zionist education.
Over the past few weeks, a group of prominent Jewish American philanthropists has been working to separate the JA from the WZO, and to end political affiliation within the WZO. The group, which includes some of the world's wealthiest Jews, is threatening to halt contributions to the JA until its demands are met. The donors said they wold give money to independent projects instead.
Nearly half the JA's budget comes from donations by North American Jews via United Jewish Communities (UJC), which controls only 30 percent of JA seats.
The donors and community leaders are calling for increased UJC representation and broader oversight by American accountants.
WZO members, including representatives from Israeli political parties, the major Zionist organizations and various religious streams, fill half the seats in the organizations that run the Jewish Agency, and the JA Assembly, board of governors and directorate.
They also control the political appointments of senior JA officials. Sheldon Adelson, considered the world?s richest Jew, recently gave $50 million to Taglit-birthright Israel, but consistently refuses to donate to the Jewish Agency.
The protest letter is signed, among others, by heads of world organizations affiliated with Israeli parties, representatives of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements, and Maccabi and Naamat.
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