The hunt is attracting a lot of interestand the stakes are high
The Jewish Agency’s annual budget for 2021 is around $370 million, paying a full-time staff of well over 1,000 (complemented by some 25,000 volunteers), funding well-known programs like Birthright and Masa Israel, and maintaining relationships with Jewish communities in the Diaspora. It’s seen as a plum job, and the one charged with the enormous responsibility of running this enterprise also serves as its public face around the world.
The committee tasked with choosing the Jewish Agency’s next head could only breathe a sigh of relief last week. Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, the government’s favored candidate, left the race after a shocking gaffe: he casually mentioned to reporters that as head of the IDF’s human resources office, he had shredded harassment complaints against senior officers.
Stern was already notorious in Yesh Atid for his aggressive personality. The Jewish Agency selection committee felt like Lapid and Lieberman were trying to foist Stern on them against their will. The committee members were hoping for someone who wouldn’t rock the boat too much, an easy-going guy like former chairman Yitzchak Herzog.
The ten-member selection committee, chosen by the agency’s board of governors, represents the whole spectrum of the organization — from former OU president Rabbi Harvey Blitz (and currently chairman of the World Mizrachi Movement) to Reform official Meir Azari. It takes only two No votes among committee members to sink a candidacy.
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