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JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
T
he recent announce-
ment that David
Harris would succeed
the ailing Ira Silverman as
executive vice president of
the troubled American Jew-
ish Committee came as no
surprise to observers of the
Jewish organizational
world.
There was a sense of in-
evitability to Mr. Harris' as-
cent. Even his detractors
suggest that few other
leaders on today's Jewish
scene have been so clearly
marked for leadership.
But Mr. Harris takes the
reigns at a particularly
troubling time for the 85-
year-old organization.
Recently, the group's fi-
nancial woes forced a painful
reorganization, including a
number of layoffs and pro-
gram retrenchments, as well
as the demise of its maga-
zine, Present Tense.
Indeed, Jewish groups of
all types are experiencing a
time of tremendous
challenge, both financially
and in terms of carving out a
meaningful role for them-
selves in the complex lives of
modern American Jews.
AJC officials are no doubt
hoping that Mr. Harris's
charisma will help turn
things around for their
organization. Once con-
sidered the wealthiest and
most respected of the na-
tional Jewish groups, best
known for its research and
centrist positions on a range
of international and nation-
al issues, AJC has come to be
perceived as elitist.
Mr. Harris is often quoted
in the news, a fact that offi-
cials of other Jewish organ-
izations acknowledge,
sometimes begrudgingly.
"He's the first Jewish
media superstar," said one
such official. The statement
was part compliment, part
complaint. "He has a way of
attracting reporters from the
big papers. When they want
comments about a Jewish
issue, David is the person
they tend to turn to. And
more often than not, he has
something cogent to say."
"He is a charismatic
fellow," said Michael Miller,
executive director of the
New York Jewish Commun-
ity Relations Council and
one of the real shakers in the
Jewish world. "I think
David Harris is one of the
David Harris
most able Jewish profes-
sionals today. His com-
munications skills are
definitely a very important
plus."
Mr. Harris, 41, is a tall
man with a distinctly Ivy
League look. But his face is
frequently set in a look of
worry and he has described
himself as a "professional
worrier."
Mr. Harris came to pro-
minence in Washington in
1987, when he was ap-
pointed to fill Hyman
Bookbinder's shoes as Wash-
ington representative for the
American Jewish Com-
mittee — a daunting task,
given Mr. Bookbinder's dy-
namic personality and
legion of friends in high
places.
But Mr. Harris, a graduate
of the University of Penn-
sylvania who did graduate
work in international rela-
tions at the London School of
Economics and Oxford Uni-
versity, had already made a
successful career in Jewish
advocacy. Before his AJC
appointment, he worked for
the Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society in Rome and Vienna,
and served as Washington
director for the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Mr. Harris' style is all
coolness and detachment. He
chooses his words with much
deliberation. He resists
questions about his self-
image, about his strengths
and weaknesses, and he has
a tendency to intellectualize
things, to talk in abstract
terms.
But beneath the surface is
a passion that has guided his
life.
In a rare excursion into the
personal, Mr. Harris de-
scribed the factors that have
shaped his occupational life.
"My own immediate fami-