Austrian Jewish Group Bans Lauder in Election Spat
Austria’s official Jewish organisation has banned billionaire Ron Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress and a former U.S. ambassador, from its property over complaints he meddled with its elections.
A spokesman for Lauder on Thursday dismissed the allegations as “a distortion of the truth”.
The move by IKG, Austria’s official representative of Jews, is an unusual slap at Lauder, son of cosmetic mogul Estee Lauder and a major supporter of Jewish communities around the world.
In a letter to Jewish leaders in Europe dated Dec. 3 and seen by Reuters, IKG President Oskar Deutsch accused Lauder of offering incentives to IKG board members to support rival candidate Martin Engelberg as president.
The incumbent Deutsch won the election.
Lauder and Engelberg strongly deny wrongdoing.
“It was Ambassador Lauder’s counsel that the Jewish community of Vienna decide their own path and vote according to their individual conscience and their own best interest,” said Gary Lewi, a Lauder spokesman.
“To suggest otherwise is a deliberate and cynical distortion of the truth.”
Engelberg said the claims against him and Lauder were “emotional and beyond reason”.
“My party contacted Ron Lauder (to see) if he would support our projects, like youth centres, since they were aligned with his previous and evident philanthropic interests,” Engelberg said.
“A major issue for my campaign was to support the community development and Jewish life instead of creating archives and investing in real estate as is currently done.”
Vienna’s Jewish community was largely annihilated in the Nazi Holocaust and now has only 8,000 members. Engelberg said most young Jews were immigrants from the former Soviet Union and needed more help.
But Deutsch told Reuters: “It is unacceptable for Ron Lauder, someone who is outside of our community, to try to interfere with or buy our elections.
“This goes against the rules of his position as president the World Jewish Congress and is wrong.”
The European Jewish Congress (EJC), a regional arm of the world body, said it would set up an panel of “eminent personalities” to investigate the alleged interference.
“According to our constitution and by-laws in no way should (the president) interfere in the internal affairs of the domestic communities. A member community has turned to us and we take this very seriously,” said Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the EJC.
The ban against Lauder does not include Viennese synagogues but covers other IKG property like schools and nursing homes, Deutsch said. (Editing by Andrew Roche)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
