Julius Berman
Image by Courtesy of Yeshiva University
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.
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
