In a surprise move, the “advise and consent” committee of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors has rejected Yehiel Leket and endorsed Avraham Burg as its choice to become the new chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization.
The move makes it most probable that Burg, a 40-year-old Labor member of Knesset, will be elected to the post to succeed Simcha Dinitz, who stepped down last year.
Dinitz, who was indicted for fraud and abuse of public trust related to the alleged misuse of Agency credit cards, is now on trial in Jerusalem.
The actual appointment will be made by the WZO, which will elect the candidate nominated by the Israeli Labor Party. The Labor Party Central Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday.
The Jewish Agency is the primary recipient of funds raised for Israel by the United Jewish Appeal in the United States.
The WZO undertakes Jewish educational efforts in the Diaspora and provides the mechanism for Diaspora Zionist organizations to participate in Jewish Agency decisions.
The Board of Governors’ “advise and consent” committee, representing the Diaspora fund-raising component of the Jewish Agency’s Diaspora-Zionist partnership, must approve a candidate before the candidate is elected.
The committee made its decision Tuesday night after a closely watched meeting with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Rabin, who had strongly backed Leket, had urged the committee to endorse both candidates and leave the final decision to the Labor Party vote.
Leket withdrew his candidacy following the Board of Governors’ decision.
Burg said on Wednesday that Jewish education “will be the number one topic on the agenda” when he takes his post.
Prior to their half-hour meeting with Rabin on Tuesday afternoon, nine committee members met with Burg.
The members were Mendel Kaplan, chairman of the board, Max Fisher, Shoshana Cardin, Julia Koschitzky, Corky Goodman, Richard Pearlstone, Maynard Wishner, Paul Berger and Norman Lipoff.
Prior meetings between the committee and each candidate were held in New York in January. The committee was said to be unimpressed with Leket’s somewhat drab personality, and with Burg’s understanding of the Jewish Agency.
Tuesday’s meeting was held at Burg’s request, and Agency sources reported that he had rectified the poor impression he had made in New York.
Some Labor Party members who had supported Leket expressed anger at the nomination process, saying that an outside body can essentially strike out a candidate by not endorsing him. They called for a rethinking of the election process.
But at a news conference here on Wednesday, Kaplan said the body has right to be involved in the partnership between Israel and the Jewish world.
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