(JTA) — Ronald Lauder and the leader of Vienna’s Jewish community have resolved a dispute over the billionaire’s alleged involvement in internal elections, the community said.
A statement posted on Jan. 23 on the website of the Jewish Community of Vienna, or IKG, said Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, “regretted his approach and said that he had in no way intended to interfere in any manner in the Jewish Community’s election campaign in November.”
Last month, the president of the Vienna community, Oskar Deutsch, accused Lauder of trying to buy the election for the community presidency and declared Lauder persona non grata at the community’s institutions.
Lauder denied Deutsch’s allegations that he had offered a total of $5.8 million to board members of the Jewish Community of Vienna in exchange for electing Martin Engelberg, a candidate who ran against Deutsch, as president.
Lauder and Deutsch conferred on Jan. 13 in Vienna, the community’s website read, adding that “the ban” against Lauder had been lifted.
Lauder, a major Jewish philanthropist and cosmetics magnate, served as U.S. ambassador to Austria under president Ronald Reagan,
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