The American Jewish Committee has appointed Bertram Gold as interim director while it searches for a replacement for executive vice president David Gordis, who was fired last month.
Gold served as executive vice president of AJCommittee from 1967-82 and subsequently as director of AJCommittee’s Institute on American-Israeli Jewish Relations.
Gordis’ termination, which was finalized at a meeting of the AJCommittee’s Board of Governors here on May 13, has sparked controversy within AJCommittee, the human relations agency founded in 1906 and one of the country’s preeminent Jewish organizations. Gordis fought his termination to the end.
Committee President Theodore Ellenoff said the Board voted 58-22 in favor of the decision to fire Gordis. With this vote, months and perhaps years of tension between Gordis, senior staff officers and lay people drew to a close.
Ellenoff said the major reason for the termination which he and six other officers decided on in April, was personality conflicts between senior staff members and Gordis.
Gordis could not be reached for comment and has not returned repeated phone calls from JTA
Two months prior to the decision to fire Gordis, Ellenoff said three senior staff members who worked directly under Gordis informed the AJCommittee of their intentions to resign. He declined to name them.
“Dr. Gordis had well-known problems with the three,” Ellenoff said. When officers learned of the staffers’ decisions, the final determination to fire Gordis was made, he said.
ASKED TO RESIGN
Ellenoff asked Gordis to resign on April 24. When he refused, Ellenoff fired him. Gordis asked the officers to vote on the decision. Six voted to fire him, one against. Gordis then asked that the matter be taken to the full board of governors, a move which Ellenoff said was not at all unusual. The larger issue, though, according to Ellenoff, was that Gordis wanted complete control over the organization, its staff, administration and policies.
Ellenoff claimed that Gordis once asked for a written policy statement which would in effect give the executive vice president complete control over the staff and administration. This was during the time the three staff members announced their resignations. All three chose to remain because Gordis was fired, Ellenoff said.
Ellenoff told JTA on May 18 that “Dr. Gordis was responsible for innovative programs during his almost three years at the American Jewish Committee and the agency will benefit from them for a long time to come.”
Gordis, 46, a Conservative rabbi, served almost three years as executive vice president. He was the highest paid professional at AJCommittee with a reported salary of $150,000 annually.
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