Bethlehem set to become Foundation president

SUZANNE BELLING

The flagship of the Foundation is the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship which trains young Jews from all over the world, including several South Africans.  

Bethlehem leaves for Mexico City this week where the inauguration will take place.

She has been both secretary and a vice-president of the Foundation for two terms and a member for many years. She has visited the Foundation programmes in Moscow, Istanbul, Warsaw, Montevideo, as well as paying many visits to Israel.

The outgoing president, Professor Ismar Schorsch, welcomed Bethlehem’s nomination saying: “Marlene has rich organisational experience and an excellent understanding of the Foundation’s mandate. Furthermore, the close association between the Memorial Foundation and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies is because of her commitment to both.”

The Foundation was founded in 1965 by founder and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, Nahum Goldmann, as a result of reparation funds from the government of the former West Germany.

Its mandate since its inception has been reconstruction of cultural life after the Holocaust.

It has identified a new generation of scholars, intellectuals, academics, writers, artists, rabbis, educators and other Jewish communal professionals, seen as replacing those of their ilk, who were murdered during the Holocaust.