Ron Lauder seeking to replace Edgar Bronfman at WJC

Jewish American billionaire Ronald Lauder is "very interested" in running for president of the World Jewish Congress, he told Haaretz Tuesday.

However, he said he will not consider himself a candidate until elections are announced.

The sitting president, Canadian billionaire Edgar Bronfman, was reelected for a four-year term in January 2005. He has held the post since 1980, but has reportedly been planning to hand the reins to his son Matthew in the summer, to give him some experience until the next elections.

Lauder has criticized the move in private conversation, saying that Matthew Bronfman does not have the necessary experience. Lauder's associates also slammed the idea of the elder Bronfman passing on the torch to his son without elections, saying the WJC is not a monarchy or a private business.

Edgar Bronfman, 77, has previously considered offering the presidency to Lauder, 62, but changed his mind due to pressure from his associates.

Lauder said he sees the WJC as one of the last remaining organizations in the Jewish world that has the ability to exert an influence, and said he believes it is more important than ever before now that Israel is facing an existential threat.

The WJC was established in 1930s Geneva and represents Jewish communities from 80 countries. In the 1990s, the organization played a key role in restoring property that was stolen in the Holocaust to its Jewish owners, but has recently found it difficult to focus on a major goal.

A report by the New York attorney general has found serious financial irregularities in the WJC's conduct prior to 2005, leading Lauder to say in private conversation that the congress was "in shambles" and incapable of adequately representing world Jewry.

Lauder is the son of Estee Lauder, the co-founder (with her husband Joseph) of the cosmetics company of the same name. An art collector, Lauder made the news last year when he paid a record $135 million for a painting by Gustav Klimt that the Nazis had stolen from Jewish owners. Lauder donates money to Jewish organizations and funds a network of private schools that operate primarily in eastern and central Europe.

Unlike Edgar Bronfman, a major donor to the Democratic Party, Lauder is a Republican, who was appointed U.S. ambassador to Austria by then-president Ronald Reagan. In Israel, he is considered close to Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.

The World Jewish Congress said Tuesday that the next elections for the presidency are not expected before January 2009.