Lauder Tapped To Lead Jewish Congress
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The World Jewish Congress yesterday elected Ronald Lauder as president, succeeding billionaire businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr. who resigned after 28 years in the post.
“This is such an important organization. Let’s do everything we can to make this what it was, glorious,” Mr. Lauder said as he addressed delegates in New York.
Mr. Lauder, 63, is a former American Ambassador to Austria and has worked in real estate and media investments with Central European Media Enterprises, which operates in a number of central and eastern European countries, according to the congress Web site. In 1987, Mr. Lauder established the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to rebuild Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe.
Mr. Bronfman’s son Matthew Bronfman was elected the chairman of the governing board.
Founded in 1936, the World Jewish Congress is well-known for its campaign to win restitution from Swiss banks holding the assets of Holocaust victims, fighting anti-Semitism, and lobbying to allow the Jews of the Soviet Union to emigrate.
The elder Bronfman announced his decision to leave May 7 at a meeting in New York.
