Several sources are telling us that American Jewish Congress, where Bernard Madoff had served as treasurer of the board, is at risk of losing more than two-thirds of its endowment. AJCongress officials say they are not commenting at this time.
When it comes to annual budgets and numbers of supporters, this storied organization has been losing ground to the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League for about two decades. And plenty of people have been asking for years why it doesn’t simply merge with either of the two larger defense organizations. In recent years, much of that talk has subsidied, with the arrival of Jack Rosen — first as president and then as chairman — gaining plenty of headlines and high-level meetings with world leaders. The organization still has several capable professionals on its payroll, notbaly its legal guru Marc Stern and foreign policy buff David Twersky, but bad economic news is sure to revive the calls for a merger (assuming the organization has enough money to hang on).
