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The reparation reformers By Anshel Pfeffer The documentary that Channel Two decided to air on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, "Reparation Morals: The Fight Continues," did not make for easy screening. It was not a simple decision to schedule a provocative investigation attacking the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany - the largest organization in the Jewish world dedicated to the welfare of Holocaust survivors - in the channel's prime-time slot, instead of another documentary shedding light on an unknown chapter of the extermination. Advertisement At least from the point of view of public interest, the decision made sense. The furor surrounding the broadcast, even before it was screened, was all a filmmaker could hope for: newspapers debated the arguments for and against across double spreads, the film's producers and critics were extensively interviewed on TV and radio, politicians and celebrities weighed in, lawyers flew back and forth. When the show finally aired, it was almost an anticlimax. But not quite. Reparation Morals has been likened by Israeli television critics to a punch in the face, however it's really more like a kick in the balls: vicious, debilitating, and aimed at the most vulnerable and painful point. It almost doesn't matter whether or not the accusations it raises are accurate or not, the tone says it all. The two filmmakers, self-styled "docu-activists" and "social journalists," Orly Vilnai-Federbush and Guy Meroz, created a simple equation: there are thousands of poor and ill Holocaust survivors in Israel, the Claims Conference receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year to help survivors, yet uses some of the money for other purposes, therefore the Conference's executives and lay-leaders are directly responsible for the survivors' plight. All's fair in a crusade Vilnai-Federbush and Meroz are convinced that it is their holy duty to right these wrongs and that their chosen medium is powerful enough to force the scrooges of the Claims Conference to release the billion-dollar nest egg they are sitting upon. All means are fair in their crusade. Lobbying against the organization in the U.S. Congress and the Knesset, encouraging the New York attorney general to investigate the Claims Conference's financial affairs, pushing a microphone in the face of the German finance minister, asking him if he knows what happens to the hundreds of millions of euros his government gives the conference annually and pursuing its elderly leaders across three continents, badgering them for answers they don't really want to hear. Their methods aren't particularly original, this is the "citizens journalism" pioneered by Michael Moore, but the two give it a special Israeli style of irreverence. In many ways, what we see on screen isn't just a no-holds debate on the Claims Conference's policies, but finally the bursting-out of the frustration Israelis feel toward the paternalistic attitude of the international Jewish mega-organizations. The various criticisms of the conference are well-known, and the crusading duo list them quite comprehensively. The arguments though, are far from being clear-cut. The Claims Conference does keep hundreds of millions of dollars in its bank accounts, this money could alleviate much suffering among the survivors in their final years, but the funds are also needed to ensure that the same survivors continue receiving pensions over the next two decades. The conference does finance an array of organizations, not concerned with survivors' welfare and there is an element of cronyism in the selection of their finance bodies. Conference board members have a knack of appearing on these organizations' boards as well, but they also perform a lot of valuable educational and commemorative work. Is it justified that 20 percent of the discretionary funds go to these aims? Good question, but that hardly turns the Claims Conference in to a mafia as Meroz calls them in the film. The conference deducts heavy fees when it transfers the proceeds of sales of formerly Jewish-owned property in eastern Germany to its heirs, but the conference has a point when it claims that if it were not for their efforts, most heirs would have never have seen a cent. The film's main flaw lies in its hubristic overkill, and not any particular detail or specific charge leveled at the Claims Conference, which has evaded serious scrutiny for too long. The conference leadership is not a bunch of crooks - many of them have given decades of valuable service to the Jewish people and Holocaust survivors - but they have also become tainted with the sin of hubris. For all its talk of oversight, transparency and independent accounting, they have allowed themselves to act, and worse to be seen, as an aloof Jewish House of Lords, comprised of grandees from the powerful organizations. They are prepared to be inspected as long as they choose the inspectors and decide upon the guidelines. This week, when I reported that the Dorner Commission, investigating the situation of Holocaust survivors in Israel, would also report on the way Claims Conference money is allocated here, a Claims Conference official remarked to me: "Who is Dalia Dorner to interfere in our affairs?" Its Manhattan address exempts the Claims Conference from the scrutiny of Israeli authorities, and the ineffectuality of much of the world's Jewish media has allowed it to operate with impunity for decades. The populist style of Vilnai-Federbush and Meroz is distasteful, they knew the bottom line of their investigation before they even set out. The looks of shock on the faces of the Claims Conference leaders at the lack of respect they received from these two unkempt inquisitors was authentic, no dialogue is possible between the sides, they don't even speak the same language. As the credits rolled, it was hard not to feel a grim sense of satisfaction from the way these two cheeky Israelis pricked the Claim Conference's bubble of pomposity and self-righteousness. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Security first Foreign Minister Livni tells the PA to ensure terrorists don't exploit Israel's gestures. Terrorist pride Lebanon-based guerillas Hezbollah say they're proud to appear on the U.S. terrorist list.

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