Big Jewish names on Clinton foundation list

December 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Some well-known pro-Israel activists and a leading Jewish organization are among the large donors to Bill Clinton's charitable foundation.

Haim Saban, an AIPAC activist and the founder of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, donated $5 million to $10 million to the former president's nonprofit organization, which raises money to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS. The foundation also provided the funds to build Clinton's library in Little Rock, Ark.

S. Daniel Abraham, founder of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, gave $1 million to $5 million, while the American Jewish Committee donated between $100,000 and $250,000, according to The Associated Press. The foundation only released ranges of giving for the 205,000 foundation donors, not specific donation totals.

Also on the list was Harold Snyder, a board member of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals, who donated in the $1 million to $5 million range.

A number of Muslim governments also were top donors to the foundation. Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million, and Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Oman also contributed. Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi and Issam Fares, a former deputy prime minister of Lebanon, also were large donors, according to the AP.

The foundation has raised $492 million since 1997, but the former president had not previously made the list of donors public. He agreed to release the names after the nomination of Hillary Clinton to serve as secretary of state because of worries about the impact his business dealings around the world could have on his wife's new job.

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Big Jewish names on Clinton foundation list

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