(JTA) — While publicly taking steps to eliminate the influence politicians wield at the Jewish Agency for Israel, the agency also cleared the way for a new chairman — the choice of Israel’s prime minister.
The agency has been caught in something of a political pickle in recent weeks after Benjamin Netanyahu publicly endorsed his political ally, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, to head the agency.\
In the past that would have made Sharansky a shoo-in. But in recent months, agency officials jockeying to assert the right to choose their own professional leader have expressed public dismay that Netanyahu would impose a chairman of his choosing.
Backers of Netanyahu and Sharansky in the Israeli government threatened that if the agency resisted, it could lose millions in government funding. The agency, which receives $140 million to $180 million annually from the North American Jewish federation system, has an exclusive relationship with the Israeli government in some areas, such as immigrant absorption.
“If the Jewish Agency wants to become just another NGO, cutting its connections with the Israeli government, that’s their right,” Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs and information, Yuli Edelstein, told the Jerusalem Post. “The immediate result will be to find more efficient partners to advance our programs and interests in the Diaspora.”
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