A Cosmetics Billionaire Will Head World Jewish Congress

Ronald S. Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, has been elected president of the World Jewish Congress and hopes to engineer a turnaround for the financially troubled group, reports The New York Times.

The organization, in New York, has helped recover billions of dollars for Holocaust victims but is currently under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.

Israel Singer, the World Jewish Congress’s former secretary general, was involved in a scandal that ended his close friendship with the organization’s billionaire patron, Edgar M. Bronfman. A new internal report issued by the organization indicates that stronger financial and legal controls are still needed.

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