Life
Singer grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Austrian refugees. He teaches political science in Touro University, New York, Lander College for Men, and taught at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel. [1]
Singer has been an activist and advocate on behalf of the victims of the Holocaust. As chairman of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), he managed efforts to compensate Holocaust survivors monetarily. He also negotiated with Germany and Austria about annuities and compensation for survivors.
In October 2001, he was appointed chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress (WJC). In 2002, he was elected president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, the "Claims Conference". In June 2002, he was appointed chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC). On January 11, 2005, Singer was forced to resign his post as Secretary General of the WJC at its Plenary Meeting in Brussels. A replacement was elected and Singer was given a position with no financial responsibilities as Chair of the WJC Policy Committee. [2] [3]
Israel Singer is a co-founder of Yahad-In Unum, an organization founded by priest Patrick Desbois, and dedicated to research on the "Holocaust by bullets". [4]
Singer also acted as vice-chairman of the Yad Vashem Council. [5]
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the survivors; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's vision, as stated on its website, is: "To lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide."
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as "the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people". Membership in the WJC is open to all representative Jewish groups or communities, irrespective of the social, political or economic ideology of the community's host country. The World Jewish Congress headquarters are in New York City, and the organization maintains international offices in Brussels, Belgium; Jerusalem; Paris, France; Moscow, Russia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Geneva, Switzerland. The WJC has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Edgar Miles Bronfman was an American-Canadian businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman is especially remembered for initiating diplomacy with the Soviet Union, which resulted in legitimizing the Hebrew language in the USSR, and contributed to Soviet Jews being legally able to practice their own religion, as well as immigrate to Israel.
The Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany was signed on September 10, 1952, and entered in force on March 27, 1953. According to the Agreement, West Germany was to pay Israel for the costs of "resettling so great a number of uprooted and destitute Jewish refugees" after the war, and to compensate individual Jews, via the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, for losses in Jewish livelihood and property resulting from Nazi persecution.
Yitzhak Arad was an Israeli historian, author, IDF brigadier general and Soviet partisan. He also served as Yad Vashem's director from 1972 to 1993, and specialised in the history of the Holocaust.
Yehuda Bauer is a Czech-born Israeli historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He is a professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, represents the world's Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. According to Section 2(1)(3) of the Property Law of Germany, the Claims Conference is a legal successor with respect to the claims not filed on time by Jewish persons. This fact was reasserted in decisions of some lawsuits which attempted to redefine the Claims Conference as a "trustee" of these assets. These lawsuits were dismissed. The Claims Conference administers compensation funds, recovers unclaimed Jewish property, and allocates funds to institutions that provide social welfare services to Holocaust survivors and preserve the memory and lessons of the Holocaust. Julius Berman has led the organization as chairman of the board, and currently president, as of 2020.
Irene Gut Opdyke was a Polish nurse who gained international recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. She was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking her life to save twelve Jews from certain death.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is an international memorial day on 27 January that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the genocide of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, an attempt to implement its "final solution" to the Jewish question. 27 January was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accepted definition of the term, and it has been applied variously to Jews who survived the war in German-occupied Europe or other Axis territories, as well as to those who fled to Allied and neutral countries before or during the war. In some cases, non-Jews who also experienced collective persecution under the Nazi regime are considered Holocaust survivors as well. The definition has evolved over time.
Menachem Z. Rosensaft an attorney in New York and the founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, is a leader of the Second Generation movement of children of Holocaust survivors. He has been described on the front page of The New York Times as one of the most prominent of the survivors' sons and daughters. He has served as national president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, and was active in the early stages of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. As psychologist Eva Fogelman has written: "Menachem Rosensaft's moral voice has gone beyond the responsibility he felt as a child of survivors to remember and educate. He felt the need to promote peace and a tolerant State of Israel as well. He wanted to bring to justice Nazi war criminals, to fight racism and bigotry, and to work toward the continuity of the Jewish people".
The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt, both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide.
The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, also known as the American Gathering, is the largest organization of Holocaust survivors in North America. It functions as an umbrella organization for survivor resources, offering both services and advocacy. The American Gathering is active in Holocaust remembrance, education and commemoration programs. From 1983 onwards, the organization has held national reunion events.
Avi Beker was an Israeli writer, statesman, and academic. Beker served as secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 4 October 2001 to 14 October 2003.
The World Holocaust Forum is a series of events aimed at preserving the memory of the Holocaust. It is also known as the "Let My People Live!" Forum.
Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor is a Russian businessman and philanthropist who has close ties to the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia. Kantor heads the Acron Group, one of the leading mineral fertilizer producers and distributors in the world.
Isi Leibler was a Belgian-born Australian-Israeli international Jewish activist.
The Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce or Project HEART (2011-2014) was a Holocaust restitution project that was created by a decision of the Israeli Government to locate Holocaust victims and their heirs and the property that was taken from them during the Holocaust and to assist in obtaining restitution for that property. Restitution would have been sought using databases containing the data submitted by Holocaust victims and their heirs and information about the property that was taken from them. Those who were interested in participating were directed to fill out a questionnaire to determine their eligibility and may also have accessed a website and call center for assistance. Questionnaires had been collected and processed by an administrator and then forwarded to the Israeli Government, which had planned to negotiate with the relevant Governments, companies and others who hold Holocaust assets. This project used innovations, such as the Internet, not used in previous restitution attempts and marked the most serious attempt at obtaining restitution for aged Holocaust victims and their heirs. By April 2014 the project lost 95% of its funding, is accepting no requests, and it has eventually been absorbed into the Israeli Ministry of Senior Citizens, from which the funding into the project were coming.
Robert Singer is the Chairman for the Center for Jewish Impact, a former Israeli government official, a Jewish organization leader and a businessman. Singer served as the chief executive officer and Executive-Vice President of the World Jewish Congress from May 2013 until July 2019, the most senior professional of the international Jewish NGO.
