AJCongress Suspends Activities
Read Jerome A. Chanes’ column about AJCongress’ impact here.
The American Jewish Congress has suspended its activities after running out of funds.
The suspension of the venerable Jewish-American advocacy organization’s activities, confirmed to JTA on Sunday by acting co-executive director Marc Stern, comes after months of rumors that the organization was on the verge of collapse after losing most of its endowment in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.
As of Sunday afternoon there was no mention of the suspension on the AJCongress website.
The Jerusalem Post had reported in April that the AJCongress lost as much as 90 percent of its approximately $24 million endowment in the Madoff scam.
Richard Gordon, the AJCongress president, told the Post that the group has money in the bank but cannot access it now due to the constraints of its constitution.
The 92-year-old organization is rumored to be in merger talks with the American Jewish Committee.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
