Reports Clarify Handling of WJC Funds

The Jewish Agency For Israel, an organization devoted to strengthening ties between Jews in the Diaspora and Israel, has issued a report by Ernst & Young to clarify its transfer of $1.5 million in 2001 to the World Jewish Congress, a global diplomatic body that represents Jewish communities in more than 100 countries.The report comes a few months after the World Jewish Congress released its own report, conducted by Loeb & Troper, on the handling of funds from 2001 to 2004.Each of the reports, conducted by independent accounting firms, is an effort to shore up public confidence in the commissioning organization after an internal inquiry at the World Jewish Congress and numerous press accounts raised questions about the handling of those funds and governance in general.“The reason for the commissioning of this audit was to show everyone, in black and white, through an independent source, that the Jewish Agency has nothing to hide in this transfer of funds. There was too much rumor going around,” a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, Michael Jankelowitz, said. “The Jewish Agency cannot afford to have its name smeared.”The crisis in public confidence began when press accounts reported that the head of the congress, Israel Singer, had authorized the transfer of $1.2 million to Swiss bank accounts from the congress’s New York bank account in 2002 and 2003, with the motive of setting aside money for his pension. In press accounts, Mr. Singer said the source of the funds was the $1.5 million given to the congress by the agency. Today these funds are back in a New York bank account.In December, the current chairman of the agency, Sallai Meridor, hired Ernst & Young to investigate the Jewish Agency’s involvement in the matter. Ernst & Young submitted its report in February and the agency released it to the public last week.In the end, the reports of the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency concur on the basic facts that were never much in dispute in the first place.Both reports say the Jewish Agency transferred $1.5 million to the World Jewish Congress in January 2001 with no specific use attached to the funds. The World Jewish Congress maintains that using the money for pensions was permissible. The Jewish Agency also notes that there was “no linkage” between the transfer and the congress’s later moving around of a sum of $1.2 million.On the issue of the alleged irregularities in the handling of funds by the World Jewish Congress, Loeb & Troper concluded: “Based upon our review of the documentation, we are not aware of any irregularities.”Both organizations said they are implementing financial reforms.In early January, the congress made public a letter to Mr. Singer from Avrum Burg, dated December 31, 2004. In the letter, Mr. Burg, who was chairman of the Jewish Agency from 1992 to 1997, described himself as one who suffers “pain and distress over the public damage to the World Jewish Congress’s image.” Mr. Burg explained to Mr. Singer, seemingly as a way to back up Mr. Singer’s version of events, that one of the uses of the $1.5 million to be given to the World Jewish Congress was pensions.

Reports Clarify Handling of WJC Funds

Reports Clarify Handling of WJC Funds

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