Word: bronfmans
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...Instead Bronfman went to Washington and had lunch with New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato. The Republican from Long Island was down in the polls back home, under fire for his partisan assaults on President Clinton's ethics, desperate for an issue that would refurbish his image. Bronfman brought him a heaven-sent gift certain to appeal to his large bloc of Jewish voters. When Bronfman told him about the Swiss banks' stalling, D'Amato offered public hearings by his Senate banking committee. With the in-your-face D'Amato aboard, the war was about to begin in earnest...
...quiet war gave way to public battles, and Bronfman wasn't finished enlisting political help. On April 8, a day before he was to testify at D'Amato's hearing, Bronfman invited Hillary Rodham Clinton to his New York apartment for a fund-raising lunch. That morning, New York magazine had published a story on the search for Jewish money in Swiss banks. Bronfman ripped the pages out and gave them to Clinton. "Will you please read these?" he said. "You will understand how important it is that I see your husband tomorrow." Clinton scanned the article and asked, "Swiss...
Israel Singer packed his briefcase with Safehaven documents when he and Bronfman flew to Bern in September 1995. One by one, he laid them on the table before officials of the Swiss Bankers Association, charting a trail of the banks' complicity. Singer and Bronfman insisted the bankers come clean about their role, restoring Jewish funds to Holocaust survivors. But, recalls Singer, "they stonewalled us," offering merely the $32 million found in 774 dormant accounts...
...Bronfman told the Swiss he had not come to Bern to talk about money; he had come to talk about process. He wanted to work with the Swiss on a new survey of exactly how many Jewish accounts had existed and how the money left could be returned to rightful owners. Finally the two sides agreed to set up an audit, then discuss a final resolution. In the meantime, the process would be kept quiet...
...bankers broke the confidentiality agreement and publicized a long, detailed Swiss view of the problem. Immediately afterward, the World Jewish Congress issued a statement debunking the Swiss declaration. "I was furious," says Bronfman. "I had just been talking to 500 Jews in Jerusalem who asked me what was going on. I said I couldn't tell them anything because we had agreed with the Swiss not to have any publicity. Then their statement came out. I think it was written out of anger and bad judgment on their part. I stopped trusting them...