(RNS) How do you replace the “Jewish pope”?
That’s the nickname for Abraham H. Foxman, who announced Monday (Feb. 10) that after 27 years at its helm he will retire in July 2015 from the Anti-Defamation League, perhaps the world’s most prominent organization founded to fight anti-Semitism and bigotry.
Several activists in the Jewish community said Foxman’s successor would do well to share the power of the organization rather than concentrate it at the very top.
A Holocaust survivor known for his quick — some say too quick — defense of Jews and the Jewish state, Foxman stood up for Muslims, gays and others, too. He was a man called on by presidents. Politicians and celebrities apologized to him when they had offended Jews.
“Abe is irreplaceable,” President Obama said in a statement released Tuesday (Feb. 11), “but the causes that he has dedicated his life to will continue to inspire people in the United States, Israel, and around the world.”
Foxman may be irreplaceable but there’s no shortage of experienced leaders who could succeed him. Here are 10 names of possible candidates in no particular order, culled from conversations with activists across many segments of Jewish life — religious, cultural and political. None are known to Religion News Service to be actual candidates.
Lonnie Nasatir
Nasatir is an ADL regional director based in Chicago and a former lawyer for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
William Daroff
Daroff is director of the Washington office of the Jewish Federations of North America, regional groups that support the Jewish community and the less fortunate around the U.S.
Stacy Burdett
Burdett is the ADL’s director of government and national affairs.
Gary Ackerman
After serving 15 terms, Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, retired from the U.S. House in January 2013.
Michael Salberg
He heads the ADL’s international affairs office.
Hannah Rosenthal
The former head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs served as the head of Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism in the Obama administration.
Rudy Boschwitz
Boshwitz fled Nazi Germany as a child and served as the U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1978 to 1991. He was affiliated with the Independent-Republican party.
Simon Greer
Greer is president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and formerly headed the Progressive Jewish Alliance and Jewish Funds for Justice.
Noam Marans
Marans, a rabbi, is the American Jewish Committee’s director of interreligious and intergroup relations.
Ira Forman
Forman serves as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism and has also served as the Jewish outreach director for the Obama for America campaign.
YS/AMB END MARKOE