Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2013

Julius Berman

Julius Berman, 78, chairman of the organization that distributes millions of dollars in German reparation funds to Holocaust survivors, has long been seen as one of American Jewry’s most capable lay leaders. But that reputation was called into question this year.

An internal probe by the Conference for Material Claims Against Germany found that he was one of several officials who failed to inform the conference’s board about credible 2001 allegations that members of its own staff were committing fraud.

By the time 31 people including almost a dozen employees of the Claims Conference were discovered in 2009 and convicted in a series of prosecutions ending this year, they had stolen at least $57 million in funds meant for survivors.

Back in 2001, when Berman was the group’s counsel and a member of its audit and executive committees, he was asked to investigate the allegations, which came to the conference via a detailed anonymous letter. A paralegal at Berman’s Manhattan law firm, to whom he assigned this task, recommended a deeper probe, including further interrogation of the man who turned out to be the scheme’s ringleader.

But neither Berman, who became chairman of the conference in 2002, nor three other senior officials informed about the charges moved to stop the fraud. Nor did they inform other board members of the anonymous letter’s existence, even nine years later, when they brought in the FBI.

The internal investigating committee termed this failure “totally unacceptable” and part of a “litany of lack of diligence, competence and judgment.”

The Claims Conference nevertheless re-elected Berman as its chairman last June.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.