AJCongress, Leading Church-State Advocate, Suspends Operations After Financial Losses

Today's New York Jewish Week reports that the American Jewish Congress, an advocacy group known for its expertise on church-state issues, has suspended operations due to financial problems. AJCongress lost $21 million of its $24 million endowment in the 2008 Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. (See prior posting.) The AJCongress demise is also blamed on changes made in the 1990's by Jack Rosen, a successful businessman who served as president of the group. JTA reports that some activities by AJCongress continue with staff hoping that the organization is not totally dead. Controversy surrounds the Board's failure to unrestrict remaining funds to pay AJCongress employees before final layoffs last Thursday. (Forward). An op-ed published last week in the Forward traces the long history of AJCongress, including its leading role in supporting church-state separation in Supreme Court litigation. During the 1950's and 1960's, AJCongress' Leo Pfeffer was the pre-eminent church-state litigation strategist nationally for the Jewish community.