Almost ten years ago, in November 1999, the same JTA reporter, Uriel Heilman, did an analysis of the Claims Conference titled "Who controls the Claims Conf.'s billions?" Read the full JTA story from 1999 here. An excerpt:
When a small group of non-elected representatives controls the distribution of billions of dollars to tens of thousands of Jews, discord is inevitable. And when the recipients are aging Holocaust survivors and the money at issue is restitution for their suffering at the hands of the Nazis, differences of opinion carry the weight of moral debate.Greg Schneider, then Chief Operating Officer, is quoted defending the anachronistic structure and composition of the Board of Directors, which continues to allocate full voting seats to several founding organizations even though they have shrunk dramatically into irrelevancy since the 1950s:
Is there any advantage to throwing them off?...The important thing is: Is there anybody’s voices who aren’t heard?How about the grassroots voices of survivors, Mr. Schneider?
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