WALLY SC
Unwelcome Remarks
Jewish billionaire says Jews and Israel
cause anti-Semitism.
URIEL HEILMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I
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I
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BUICK
i
New York
is not often that George Soros,
the billionaire financier and phi-.
lanthropist, makes an appearance
before a Jewish audience. It's even
rarer for him to use such an occasion to
talk about Israel, Jews and his
own role in effecting political
change.
So when Soros stepped to
the podium Nov. 5 to address
those issues at a conference of
the Jewish Funders Network,
audience members were listen-
ing carefully. Many were sur-
prised by what they heard.
Soros
When asked about anti-
Semitism in Europe, Soros, who
is Jewish, said European anti-Semitism is
the result of the policies of Israel and the
United States.
"There is a resurgence of anti-
Semitism in Europe. The policies of the
Bush administration and the Sharon
administration contribute to that," Soros
said. Its not specifically anti-Semitism,
but it does manifest itself in anti-
Semitism as well. I'm critical of those
policies.
"If we change that direction, then
anti-Semitism also will diminish," he
said. "I can't see how one could confront
it directly."
That is a point made by Israel's most
vociferous critics, whom some Jewish
activists charge with using anti-Zionism
as a guise for anti-Semitism.
The billionaire financier said he, too,
bears some responsibility for the new
anti-Semitism, citing last month's speech
by Malaysia's outgoing prime minister,
Mahathir Mohammad, who said, "Jews
rule the world by proxy"
"I'm also very concerned about my
own role because the new anti-Semitism
holds that the Jews rule the world," said
Soros, whose projects and funding have
influenced governments and promoted
various political causes around the
world. "As an unintended consequence
of my actions," he said, "I also con-
tribute to that image."
Mahathir has singled out Soros and
other "Jewish financiers" for financial
pressure that Mahathir said harmed
Malaysia's economy.
Abraham Foxman, national director of
the Anti-Defamation League, called
Soros' comments "absolutely obscene.
He buys into the stereotype. It's a sim-
plistic, counterproductive, biased and
bigoted perception of what's out there.
It's blaming the victim for all of Israel's
and the Jewish people's ills."
Furthermore, Foxman said, "If he sees
that his position of being who he
is may contribute to the percep-
tion of anti-Semitism, what's his
solution to himself — that he
give up his money? That he close
his mouth?"
Associates said Soros' appear-
ance Nov. 5 was the first they
could ever recall in which the
billionaire, a Hungarian-born
U.S. Jew who escaped the
Holocaust by fleeing to London as
a child, had spoken in front of a Jewish
group or attended a Jewish function.
The one-day meeting on funding in
Israel, which took place at the Harvard
Club in New York, was limited mostly
to representatives of Jewish philanthrop-
ic foundations.
After Soros' speech, Michael
Steinhardt, the real-estate magnate and
Jewish philanthropist who arranged for
Soros to address the group, said that
Soros' views do not reflect those of most
Jewish millionaires or philanthropists.
He also pointed out that this was Soros'
first speech to a Jewish audience.
Steinhardt is chairman of Jewish
Renaissance Media, the parent company
of the Detroit Jewish News.
Steinhardt approached the lectern and
interrupted Soros immediately after his
remarks on anti-Semitism. "George
Soros does not think Jews should be
hated any more than they deserve to
be," Steinhardt said by way of clarifica-
tion, eliciting chuckles from the audi-
ence.
Though he's ranked as the 28th rich-
est person in the United States by Forbes
magazine — with a fortune valued at $7
billion — Soros has given relatively little
money to Jewish causes.
Soros' first known funding of a Jewish
group came in 1997, when he gave $1.3
million to the Council of Jewish
Federations (now part of United Jewish
Communities) and $1.3 million to the
Jewish Fund for Justice, an anti-poverty
group. Ll
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