The World Jewish Congress: Influence Without Power
Author(s)
Mualem, Yitzhak
Abstract
As a nongovernmental entity, the World Jewish Congress is active in the global politics of the Jewish people, maintaining a broad network of relations with bodies and governments in all parts of the world. This network assists the congress in its activities of providing material, political, and cultural aid to Jewish communities throughout the world. The present article focuses on this entity in an attempt to answer the question: What is the degree of influence of nonnational organizations in the global political arena, in an era in which the governmental unit, namely the sovereign state, is the chief actor? This examination of the World Jewish Congress’ ability to act in the global Jewish political arena concentrates on three issues which represent three areas of activity on the organization’s agenda: reparations, endangered Jewry, and the Kurt Waldheim affair.
