Jewish Agency head appointment likely to be delayed after abrupt withdrawal of Lapid’s candidate

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The Jewish Agency Board of Governors is scheduled to convene next week to approve its new chairman of the executive. But as things stand today, there may be no candidate to approve.

After the sudden withdrawal from the race last week of Elazar Stern, who had been considered a frontrunner for the job, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid had requested from the nomination committee a delay in procedures to allow his party to present another candidate.

Stern, a member of Yesh Atid who currently serves as the intelligence affairs minister, withdrew his candidacy following the public uproar that erupted over sexist remarks he made in a radio interview. Stern suggested in the interview that he habitually shredded complaints of sexual harassment while serving as head of the army’s manpower division. His candidacy had also received the blessing of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Lapid was given until Sunday afternoon to submit the name of an alternative candidate, however no name was submitted by the deadline.

According to the Jewish Agency bylaws, a candidate for chairman of the executive must be endorsed by nine of the ten members of the nominations committee before it is brought forth for final approval to the board of governors. Following Stern’s withdrawal from the race, eight candidates remain, but not one of them is expected to win such a large majority of votes on the nominations committee.

If there is no candidate presented to the board of governors next week, it could take until February – the next time the forum is scheduled to convene – before the identity of the new head of the Jewish Agency is known.

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Lapid’s decision not to submit the name of an alternative candidate by Sunday’s deadline appears to have been based on the assumption that he would be able to buy more time by letting the process break down on its own, which could likely happen if none of the remaining candidates receives an endorsement. This could open up the entire race again and give him time to identify other candidates who might be supported by the government.

Tzipi Livni at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, last year.Ofer Vaknin

Among the names circulating is Tzipi Livni, the former opposition leader and, until her retirement several years ago, one of the most prominent female politicians in Israel. Another candidate whose name has recently been touted is Nachman Shai, a member of Labor who currently serves as diaspora affairs minister.

All eight candidates currently vying for the job are either members of the right-wing Likud, have some affiliation with the party or strongly identify with the right-wing camp.

Representatives of the progressive Jewish movements and the center-left parties have, therefore, expressed concern about a right-wing takeover of the Jewish Agency. Of the major Zionist organizations – also known as the “national institutions” – three of the four are currently headed by representatives of right-wing parties: Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, the largest fundraising body for Israel, is headed by Sam Grundwerg, a Likud appointee; the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael), which owns large swaths of land in Israel, is headed by Avraham Duvdevani, a representative of the religious Zionist movement World Mizrahi; and the World Zionist Organization is headed by Yaakov Hagoel, the former director of World Likud. Hagoel has been filling in as acting chairman since Herzog’s resignation from the Jewish Agency.

The eight candidates who have already been interviewed by the nominations committee are Danny Danon, head of World Likud and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations; Irina Nevzlin, board chief of the ANU Museum of the Jewish People; Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem; Michal Kotler-Wunsh, former Knesset member for Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party; Uzi Dayan, former general and Likud lawmaker; Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to Washington and Knesset member for the center-right Kulanu party; Omer Yankelevich, former diaspora affairs minister and member of Kahol Lavan; Yaffa Zilbershats, a law professor at Bar-Ilan University and former head of the Council for Higher Education’s planning and budget department.