Focus Turns to Long Island Philanthropist as Israeli Prime Minister Is Investigated
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
A Long Island philanthropist and fund-raiser for Israeli charities is at the center of a growing storm surrounding Israels prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that has riveted and agitated Israel despite a veil of secrecy over the continuing investigation.
The philanthropist, Morris Talansky, 75, was apparently approached last month by the Israeli authorities when he arrived at the Tel Aviv airport to spend Passover with his daughter and son, who live in Jerusalem. It is unclear whether Mr. Talansky, who has yet to return from Israel, is only a witness or also a suspect in the case.
Israeli prosecutors asked a Jerusalem court on Tuesday for permission to take testimony from a foreign man, widely understood to be Mr. Talansky, even though prosecutors have yet to file any charges in the matter. Their inquiry appears to center on suspicion of bribery or campaign finance irregularities involving Mr. Olmert in or around 1999. At that time, Mr. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and was running against Ariel Sharon for the leadership of the Likud Party.
The police have imposed a strict order forbidding publication of information about the case in Israel. Mr. Talanskys name and nationality have not been made public, but details of the investigation have circulated among politicians and journalists there in recent days. The New York Post published his name on Tuesday, leading Israeli radio announcers to tell listeners to go to the newspapers Web site without saying why.
Mr. Olmert has told his cabinet and associates that once the investigation is completed, rumors that he took bribes and may face a legal morass that could topple him will prove baseless.
But the speculation about his future has weakened him politically even as he undertakes delicate negotiations with Israels neighbors under pressure from the Bush administration. Opposition politicians say he should not negotiate with the Palestinians or send messages to the Syrians under such circumstances.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has just returned from Jerusalem, and President Bush is due there next week as part of an American push to close an Israeli-Palestinian peace framework by the end of his term.
The fund-raising in 1999 that prompted the investigation into Mr. Olmert also led to campaign finance charges against people close to Mr. Sharon. His son, Omri Sharon, is serving a prison term as a result of that case.
Mr. Talansky, an Orthodox Jew who briefly led a congregation in Portland, Ore., in the 1950s as a young rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University, turned to business and philanthropy in his later career, when he lived mainly in the New York suburbs.
His first marriage, to Miriam Kriger, ended after 40 years, and two of their three children moved to Israel. He and his current wife, Helene, live in Woodsburgh in southwestern Nassau County, in a nine-room red-brick colonial that he paid $1.175 million for in 2004. He also lists that as his business address, and lists himself as the chief executive of Global Resources Group, an investment firm.
A man answering the phone at the Talansky house on Monday said, Theyre not going to return your call, and would not take a message. No one responded to a knock on the door on Tuesday.
Within Jewish circles, Mr. Talansky is best known for the years he spent as a fund-raiser for the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The hospital is popular with American Jewry, and its American fund-raising arm took in $20 million in gifts in 2002, a recent peak, according to available tax returns. Paul Glasser, the national executive director for the American organization, said Mr. Talansky had not worked for the charity since 1997. But the organization reported on its 2004 tax return that Mr. Talansky earned $90,000 that year as a consultant, with the organization pulling in more than $14 million from outside sources.
Tax records also show that Mr. Talansky served as the main contact and treasurer for the American branch of the New Jerusalem Foundation, a charity closely associated with Mr. Olmert that raises money for causes in and around Jerusalem. The American branch received its tax exemption in the United States in 1999, when Mr. Olmert was in his sixth year as mayor of Jerusalem.
According to the charitys recent tax returns, it has had ups and downs, raising as much as $376,000 in contributions, gifts and grants in 2000, but only $76,000 in 2005.
Describing its mission as providing social, educational and recreational activities in Israel, the charity reported spending thousands of dollars to buy school supplies and to run camps for needy children in Israel and arranging recreational trips for residents of northern Israel who had been closeted in bomb shelters during recent hostilities.
A registered Democrat, Mr. Talansky has donated to many American candidates on both sides of the aisle. He gave President Bush $1,000 in 2003, and was a generous donor to Rudolph W. Giuliani in 2000. Among his Democratic beneficiaries have been President Bill Clinton in 1995; Thomas S. Foley, then the House speaker, in 1994; and Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1992.
Several relatives of Mr. Talansky in the United States who were reached on Monday and Tuesday by telephone said they knew nothing about his predicament and had first heard about it in the press. Hes a very smart man, and a very generous man, said Dr. Arthur Talansky, a nephew in Great Neck, N.Y.
Relatives said he used his means and connections to support many charitable organizations in the Jewish world. Hes not a poor man, that I know, said Rabbi Abraham Talansky, a cousin in Brooklyn. Hes a man who could give $10,000, like nothing.
The rabbi discounted one theory making the rounds in Israel that his cousin might be embroiled in a political effort to topple the centrist Israeli prime minister. Hes no extremist in any way, said Rabbi Talansky.
One instance of Mr. Talanskys involvement in political and business affairs in Israel is a lawsuit he and other investors filed last year in Federal District Court in New York against an Israeli satellite company that they had helped back financially. The suit contends that an Israeli-run defense manufacturer involved in the joint venture was putting diplomatic considerations ahead of business interests in its international marketing efforts.
Mr. Talansky and the other plaintiffs, including a member of the prominent Reichmann family of Canada, claimed that the satellite company was being barred from offering access to its satellite images to countries like Venezuela that might be viewed as hostile to Israeli interests.
Alain Delaquérière contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/middleeast/07olmert.html?_r=1%26oref=slogin%26ref=middleeast%26pagewanted=print
