Members of the Tribe / Where Russia's wealthy fail
By Amiram Barkat
The impressive mustering of the Jewish establishment in the United States on behalf of the inhabitants of the State of Israel and the North, in particular, will be remembered as one of the few positive phenomena of Lebanon War II. Within just a few weeks the Jewish Federations and the United Jewish Communities (UJC) of North America succeeded in raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the physical and psychological rehabilitation of the inhabitants of the North, and thus broke the previous record that had been set at the height of the Al-Aqsa intifada.
In ordinary times the attitude toward American Jewry in the Jewish world is similar in many respects to the attitude toward the United States in the international community. Jewish organizations in the rest of the world desire recognition of and support from their counterparts in the United States, but they also like to accuse American Jews of arrogance and of failing to understand the complex reality of Jewish life outside the United States.
In a conversation with Haaretz about two years ago, Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, born in Uzbekistan, noted that Jewish oligarchs in Ukraine and Russia have created a center of power that is an alternative to American Jewry. Leviev, who in 1998 founded the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Confederation of Independent States, said that the Jewish identity of the Russian and Ukrainian moguls is just as strong as that of their American peers.
Since that conversation, and despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's tough policy, most of the Jewish billionaires have continued to accumulate wealth. Three of the richest people in Russia today are of Jewish origin. This year Forbes estimated the wealth of the three - Roman Abramovich, Viktor Veksekberg and Mikhail Fridman - at $38 billion. In the ranking of the 100 wealthiest people in Ukraine, which was published two weeks ago, there were at least 20 Jewish names.
Many of the wealthy Jews in the former Soviet Union avoid activity in Jewish organizations, but there are quite a number of them who take pride in their ethnic origin and make an effort to participate in public activity. The first of these was Vladimir Gusinsky, who in 1996 founded the Russian Jewish Congress. In recent years many business people who have wanted to translate their wealth into political power in the Jewish establishment have followed in his footsteps.
After conquering the leadership of the local Jewish organizations in the former Soviet Union, the oligarchs have recently been trying to obtain representation in world Jewish organizations. Viatcheslav Kantor, for example, the president of the Russian Jewish Congress, is today considered one of the dominant figures in the communities of Central and Eastern Europe. During the past two years he has waged a struggle over control of the European Jewish Congress.
The most prestigious title in the Jewish world today is president of the World Jewish Congress, considered the "flagship" of Jewish organizations. It is no secret that the current president, billionaire Edgar Bronfman, is planning to retire from this position in the near future, after 25 years. In Bronfman's circles there is already talk of his son Matthew as a possible successor, but it is reasonable to suppose that there will be other candidates. One of the names that have been mentioned in recent years is Lev Leviev: Two years ago, the organization's vice president at the time, Izzy Liebler, tried to enlist Leviev on his side in the internal struggle with Bronfman and his associates for control of the WJC. Leviev refused to become involved and does not regret this.
In a conversation with Haaretz last week Leviev asserted that he is not interested in organizations like the WJC. According to him,
Anyone who wants to compete with American Jewry should not take the WJC as an example, but rather look at the Jewish Federations and the UJC, which by means of the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency, are helping hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world. The secret of these organizations' success is that they do not "belong" to one Jewish billionaire, but rather to hundreds of thousands of small, medium and large donors. Only if they learn to cooperate and work together for the sake of common aims will the Jewish oligarchs of the former Soviet Union succeed in playing in the same league as American Jewry.
In ordinary times the attitude toward American Jewry in the Jewish world is similar in many respects to the attitude toward the United States in the international community. Jewish organizations in the rest of the world desire recognition of and support from their counterparts in the United States, but they also like to accuse American Jews of arrogance and of failing to understand the complex reality of Jewish life outside the United States.
In a conversation with Haaretz about two years ago, Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, born in Uzbekistan, noted that Jewish oligarchs in Ukraine and Russia have created a center of power that is an alternative to American Jewry. Leviev, who in 1998 founded the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Confederation of Independent States, said that the Jewish identity of the Russian and Ukrainian moguls is just as strong as that of their American peers.
Since that conversation, and despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's tough policy, most of the Jewish billionaires have continued to accumulate wealth. Three of the richest people in Russia today are of Jewish origin. This year Forbes estimated the wealth of the three - Roman Abramovich, Viktor Veksekberg and Mikhail Fridman - at $38 billion. In the ranking of the 100 wealthiest people in Ukraine, which was published two weeks ago, there were at least 20 Jewish names.
Many of the wealthy Jews in the former Soviet Union avoid activity in Jewish organizations, but there are quite a number of them who take pride in their ethnic origin and make an effort to participate in public activity. The first of these was Vladimir Gusinsky, who in 1996 founded the Russian Jewish Congress. In recent years many business people who have wanted to translate their wealth into political power in the Jewish establishment have followed in his footsteps.
After conquering the leadership of the local Jewish organizations in the former Soviet Union, the oligarchs have recently been trying to obtain representation in world Jewish organizations. Viatcheslav Kantor, for example, the president of the Russian Jewish Congress, is today considered one of the dominant figures in the communities of Central and Eastern Europe. During the past two years he has waged a struggle over control of the European Jewish Congress.
The most prestigious title in the Jewish world today is president of the World Jewish Congress, considered the "flagship" of Jewish organizations. It is no secret that the current president, billionaire Edgar Bronfman, is planning to retire from this position in the near future, after 25 years. In Bronfman's circles there is already talk of his son Matthew as a possible successor, but it is reasonable to suppose that there will be other candidates. One of the names that have been mentioned in recent years is Lev Leviev: Two years ago, the organization's vice president at the time, Izzy Liebler, tried to enlist Leviev on his side in the internal struggle with Bronfman and his associates for control of the WJC. Leviev refused to become involved and does not regret this.
In a conversation with Haaretz last week Leviev asserted that he is not interested in organizations like the WJC. According to him,
"These are organizations that are looking for headlines and all they care about is the calling card. I prefer to engage in doing things, in Jewish education, not in attending bombastic formal receptions."
- The WJC is an organization that has to its credit historic achievements like the Holocaust bank accounts settlement and the struggle of Soviet Jewry. However, in recent years its name has indeed been linked mostly to scandals, power struggles and irregularities that were found in a review published last year by the New York state prosecutor.
Anyone who wants to compete with American Jewry should not take the WJC as an example, but rather look at the Jewish Federations and the UJC, which by means of the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency, are helping hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world. The secret of these organizations' success is that they do not "belong" to one Jewish billionaire, but rather to hundreds of thousands of small, medium and large donors. Only if they learn to cooperate and work together for the sake of common aims will the Jewish oligarchs of the former Soviet Union succeed in playing in the same league as American Jewry.
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