Isi Leibler

Isi Leibler
Isi Leibler, 2011
Born	1934 Antwerp, Belgium
Religion	Judaism (Religious Zionist)

Isi Leibler (born 1934) is a Belgian-born Australian-Israeli international Jewish activist with a distinguished record of contributions to the Jewish world and the cause of human rights.

Early life

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Leibler was brought to Australia by his parents as an infant just before the outbreak of World War II. Leibler served as president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress. He was one of the pioneering global leaders in the campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry and played a role in the lead up to Israeli diplomatic relations between India and China.

Liebler moved to Israel in 1999, settling in Jerusalem. Since then, Leibler has emerged as one of the leading global English-language commentators on Israel and Jewish affairs. He is a prolific writer, publishing weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post, the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom, and on his blog Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem.^[1]

Australian Jewry

Described in the new edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica as “unquestionably the dominant Jewish lay leader in Australia during the previous quarter century”,^[2] Leibler occupied the leadership of the Australian Jewish community (Executive Council of Australian Jewry) from 1978 and served four terms in this office, retiring in 1995.

Soviet Jewry

Leibler involvement in the fight for Soviet Jewry was first solicited by Shaul Avigur, the head of Nativ (the then-covert agency dealing with Soviet Jews) who played an enormous role behind the scenes in the formulation of policy during the early years of the state.^[3] In 1962, Mr. Leibler engineered a public campaign which resulted in Australia becoming the first country in the world to raise the plight of Soviet Jewry at the United Nations. In 1965, he published a book Soviet Jewry and Human Rights^[4] which had significant international repercussions and created a schism amongst the hitherto pro Soviet left.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Leibler made numerous visits to the Soviet Union and developed close associations with the leading Jewish dissidents and refuseniks, which he still maintains in Israel. The visits came to an end in 1980 with his arrest and expulsion from the Soviet Union.

Paradoxically, when Gorbachev liberalised the system, Leibler became the first international Jewish leader to be invited to the Soviet Union to evaluate the changes. He subsequently launched the first Jewish cultural centre in the Soviet Union – the Solomon Mykhoels Centre in Moscow,^[5] together with the first Hebrew Song Festivals in Moscow and Leningrad.

Leibler’s activities and campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry are documented in the book: Let my People Go: The untold story of Australia and Soviet Jews 1969 – 1989, authored by Sam Lipski and Suzanne Rutland in 2015.^[6]

Asia Pacific

Following the liberation of Soviet Jewry, Mr Leibler focused his attention on the Asia-Pacific region. His meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen were crucial in accelerating the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and both countries. Leibler also convened a colloquium for leading Jewish and Chinese scholars in Beijing prior to diplomatic relations being instituted between Israel and China.

World Jewish Congress

Leibler occupied senior roles in the World Jewish Congress (WJC), the umbrella organisation representing global Jewry, including Chairman of the Governing Board and Senior Vice President.

Controversy

In 2004 Leibler confronted the leadership of the WJC over the issue of governance, financial transparency, and financial irregularities. The conflict between Leibler and WJC Chairman Israel Singer revolved around the former's demand for an investigation into the transfer of $1.2 million from the organization's New York headquarters to a bank account in Geneva, and the subsequent transfer of the money by Singer into a trust account held by his friend.^[7] Leibler called for an independent audit but was demonized by those seeking to cover up the issue^[8] and ultimately forced to leave the WJC, telling Haaretz that he "came to the conclusion that I cannot remain in an organization that requires me to give a stamp of approval to activities I deem inappropriate.^[9]"

The issues were subsequently investigated by the New York Attorney General^[10] whose report vastly exceeded Leibler’s initial charges of irregularities,^[11] and which demanded the removal of Singer as WJC Chairman^[12] and the implementation of a series of reforms.^[13] The WJC subsequently filed a $6 million defamation suit against Leibler in the Israeli courts but were obliged to withdraw the action less than six months later.^[14] Even after the publication of Spitzer's report, new financial scandals concerning the WJC came to light.^[15]

Leibler was fully vindicated with the election of Ronald Lauder as the new President and the dismissal and/or retirement of all those involved in the cover up and the scandals.^[16] Leibler said at the time “satisfaction in having my position vindicated is balanced by a deep sadness that a venerable organization to which I gave so many years of my life, and which plays an important role for world Jewry, is close to a meltdown. It could have been avoided.”^[17]

Leibler has been accused of de-legitimizing liberal Jewish supporters of Israel.^[18] Leibler responded that "I stand by my view that those whose primary goal is to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state should be marginalized from the mainstream Jewish community. That is not fascism. It is common sense.^[19]

Leibler has called for a full external investigation and disclosure of massive misappropriations of funds at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), citing allegations of incompetence, impropriety and cover-ups, the absence of an independent review board, bureaucratization and a domination by a small clique, along with a failure to "prioritize the needs of survivors, who are now elderly and many of whom are living in dire poverty.^[20] In response Claims Conference Julius Berman has accused Leibler of engaging "in irresponsible invective and baseless charges against an organization that for nearly 60 years has been the leading international advocate for the rights of Holocaust victims."^[21]

Publications and Writings

Leibler writes prolifically and is a weekly columnist to the Jerusalem Post enjoying a vast following throughout the world on the internet.^[22] He is also a regular columnist for Israel Hayom, the Israeli daily newspaper.

Leibler was one of the first Jewish leaders to warn of the dangers of religious extremism, in particular radical religious nationalism.^[23] He has written extensively on this subject ^[24] and his works have been translated into Hebrew, Russian, French and Spanish.

In recent times, he concentrated on the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. His publication The Israel-Diaspora Identity Crisis: A Looming Disaster^[25] has been read and debated throughout the Jewish world. He now Chairs the Israel Diaspora Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a leading Israeli think tank.^[26]

Leibler also published a study on the threat post Zionism poses to the soul of Israel, titled Is the Dream Ending? The publication was translated into Hebrew and widely distributed.^[27]

Business

In Australia Leibler’s company, Jetset Tours, was the largest travel organization in the region with branches throughout the world. He was also a director one of Australia’s three national television companies. In Israel he has invested and acts as a consultant to a number of high tech companies

Awards

Leibler was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)^[28] in 1977, an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) in 1989 and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Deakin University in 1990. In 2015, Leibler was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bar Ilan University in recognition of “his tireless efforts to address the challenges facing the Jewish nation at every historic crossroad”.^[29]

References