Cosmetics heir Lauder bids to head Jewish Congress

JERUSALEM, May 27 (Reuters) Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder said today he would seek the presidency of the World Jewish Congress, whose longtime leader Edgar Bronfman resigned this month.

The WJC, which has been hit by financial scandal in recent years, fired one of its top leaders, Israel Singer, in March.

''It's time for the World Jewish Congress to look forward,'' the art collector and heir to the American-based Estee Lauder cosmetics firm said in a statement issued in Jerusalem.

''While I intend to fix what is wrong, I also intend to make the WJC what it once was and will be again -- one of the leading representative organizations of Jews everywhere.

''Reforming an organization that has seen its share of problems is not new to me.'' Lauder said one of the main challenges for Jews was an international resurgence of anti-Semitism.

The WJC, headquartered in New York, was founded in 1936 with the aim of aiding the survival and growth of the Jewish people and their culture.

It was at the forefront in fighting for billions of dollars in compensation for victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Bronfman, its president since 1981, will officially step down on June 10, when the WJC's governing board meets to elect an acting president and acting chairman.

It was not clear who would run against Lauder, who is president of the Jewish National Fund, an organisation he helped turn around from financial woes.

Singer had continued to lead the WJC's policy council after stepping down as WJC chairman in 2006 as part of an agreement with the New York attorney general's office following an investigation of the group's finances.

The investigation found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing but sharply criticised the internal financial controls of the WJC, which promised to improve internal governance.

Singer was required to repay ''inappropriate disbursements'' of more than 300,000 dollars.

REUTERS SG RK1824