The World Jewish Congress: Influence Without Power

Abstract

As a non-governmental 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 non-national organisations 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 organisation's agenda: reparations, endangered Jewry and the Waldheim affair.