The selection committee to elect the new chairman of the Jewish Agency should be in place within the next two weeks, with a view to beginning deliberations and interviewing candidates in September, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The Jewish Agency Board of Governors is then scheduled to convene in October to confirm the selection committee’s choice.
In light of the renewed spread of corona and the heightened restrictions on incoming foreign travelers in Israel, the 10-member selection committee will likely be meeting by video conference, and it is even possible that the Board of Governors meeting itself will be held on Zoom.
The selection committee is comprised of 10 members, including five from the various factions of the World Zionist Organization, three from the Jewish Agency, and two from Keren Hayesod–United Jewish Appeal.
Chairman of the WZO Yaakov Hagoel is currently serving as acting chairman of the Jewish Agency and will chair the selection committee.
Most of the organizations that send representatives to the committee have already determined who those representatives will be.
The leading candidates are Intelligence Minister Elazar Stern of Yesh Atid, who is the preferred candidate of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid, along with Danny Danon, a former Likud MK and minister, former Israeli ambassador to the UN and currently chairman of World Likud.
Another candidate is Deputy-Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, while former Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch has also been touted as a possible candidate.
Although the chairman of the Jewish Agency has often been selected in accordance with the wishes of the standing prime minister, current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett holds somewhat less sway than in the past over the committee.
Moreover, the Jewish leadership in the US is more inclined to chose a candidate on the basis of their merits rather than political considerations in Israel.
The last chairman, current President Isaac Herzog, was not the candidate of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some of the critical requirements for any of the prospective candidates will certainly be an ability to be collaborative, as Herzog was, as well as someone with a good understanding of Diaspora Jewry, especially in the US, and good connections with its leadership and institutions.
An ability to fund-raise effectively for the Jewish Agency is another key factor, while at the same time having the ability to gain access to the highest levels of government and having intimate knowledge of the political game in Israel.
Stern is a former army general and head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate. One of his achievements was the establishment of the Nativ program for Jewish conversion in the IDF for thousands of soldiers, primarily those who were born in the former Soviet Union or to parents who came from there.
As an MK first for the Hatnua party of Tzipi Livni and then in Yesh Atid, Stern focused on religion and state issues, and fought ferociously to reform the conversion system in Israel, but which ultimately foundered due to haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and some conservative religious-Zionist opposition.
Danon served as a Likud MK from 2009 to 2015, and challenged Netanyahu in a primary in 2014, which he lost.
He was appointed to serve briefly as the minister of Science, Technology and Space, until he secured the position of Israeli ambassador to the UN, where he served until last year.
Hassan-Nahoum is the only native-English speaker among the candidates, and has been involved in fundraising and external relations for the administration of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion since 2018.
Stern is well-known in Israel for his forthright manner and full-throttled approach to politics and government, but is less well-known abroad.
He is, however, the candidate of choice for Bennett and Lapid, and perhaps just as important is the candidate of the center-left bloc of the political spectrum and the factions of the WZO.
Currently, the WZO and the Jewish National Fund are both headed by individuals from the political right, while the head of Keren Hayesod–United Jewish Appeal was also nominated by the right-wing.
There is certainly an expectation from the Israeli center-left that its candidate should be given preference when appointing the Jewish Agency, the fourth of the national institutions.
Danon has significant experience with the Jewish Diaspora, having lived in New York for the last five years, and liaising frequently with American Jewish organizations during his time there.