Isi Leibler

In January 2005, Leibler resigned as WJC vice president, telling Haaretz that he "came to the conclusion that I cannot remain in an organization that requires me to give a stamp of approval to activities I deem inappropriate. Elan Steinberg also left the WJC amidst the controversy, while two other top officials were fired. Leibler wrote that his position had been "vindicated" but expressed "deep sadness" at the organization's disarray.

In 2004, Leibler confronted the leadership of the WJC over the issue of governance, financial transparency, and financial irregularities. The conflict between Leibler and WJC Chairman Israel Singer revolved around the former's demand for an investigation into the transfer of $1.2 million from the organization's New York headquarters to a bank account in Geneva, and the subsequent transfer of the money by Singer into a trust account held by his friend. Leibler's calls for a comprehensive independent audit" brought him into conflict with Singer and Edgar Bronfman, the WJC's longtime "president, chief benefactor, and guiding force."

In 2004, the New York State Attorney General's Office began an investigation into the WJC. The AG's Office issued a report in 2006 that found "serious financial mismanagement" at WJC, including improper payments and loans to Singer. Under an agreement between the Attorney General's Office and WJC, Singer was barred from the organization's leadership roles and returned several loans and payments, and the WJC undertook reforms. The WJC subsequently filed a $6 million defamation suit against Leibler in the Israeli courts but withdrew the action less than six months later, and were ordered by the court to pay Leibler's legal expenses. A PricewaterhouseCoopers audit in 2006 submitted by the WJC to the AG's Office found that the financial scandal was "significantly broader than has been publicly known," with some $3 million unaccounted for from 1994 to 2004. Leibler, described by the Jewish Daily Forward as the "most persistent critic" of the WJC, said that these findings were not surprising.

Leibler and his wife moved to Israel in 1999, settling in Jerusalem. He wrote weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post, the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom, and on his blog Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem.

Before the collapse of the Communist bloc, Leibler made numerous visits to the Soviet Union and developed close associations with the leading Jewish dissidents and refuseniks, which he still maintained in Israel. The visits came to an end in 1980 with his arrest and expulsion from the Soviet Union.

Described in the new edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica as “unquestionably the dominant Jewish lay leader in Australia during the previous quarter century”, Leibler occupied the leadership of the Australian Jewish community (Executive Council of Australian Jewry) from 1978 and served four terms in this office, retiring in 1995.

Leibler was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1977, an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) in 1989 and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Deakin University in 1990. In 2015, Leibler was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in recognition of “his tireless efforts to address the challenges facing the Jewish nation at every historic crossroad”.

Leibler's activities and campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry are documented in the book: Let my People Go: The untold story of Australia and Soviet Jews 1969 – 1989, authored by Sam Lipski and Suzanne Rutland in 2015.

Leibler's involvement in the fight for Soviet Jewry was first solicited by Shaul Avigur, the head of Nativ (the then-covert agency dealing with Soviet Jews) who played an enormous role behind the scenes in the formulation of policy during the early years of the state. In 1962, Mr. Leibler engineered a public campaign which resulted in Australia becoming the first country in the world to raise the plight of Soviet Jewry at the United Nations. In 1965, he published Soviet Jewry and Human Rights.

Leibler married Naomi Porush in 1958, and the couple had three sons and a daughter. All of his children and most of their families also live in Israel.

Isi Leibler AO CBE (Hebrew: .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}איזי ליבלר‎; 9 October 1934 – 13 April 2021) was a Belgian-born Australian-Israeli international Jewish activist.