{{Short description|Zionist Leader}} {{Infobox person | name = Kalman Sultanik | birth_date = April 12, 1917 | death_date = October 14, 2014 | education = La Salle Extension University | title = Head of the World Confederation of United Zionists<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Cashman|first1=Greer Fay|last2=Linde|first2=Steve|date=December 30, 2020|title=Avraham Avi-hai reflects on his exceptional career in public service|url=https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/avraham-avi-hai-reflects-on-his-exceptional-career-in-public-service-653527|access-date=|website=The Jerusalem Post|language=en-US |issn=0792-822X}}</ref>
Chairman of the World Zionist Organization American Section<ref name="Sultanik" /> | awards = Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta }}
'''Kalman Sultanik''' (April 12, 1917 – October 14, 2014) was a prominent Zionist figure who was active in numerous Jewish and Zionist organizations throughout his life. He was a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, served on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel and became vice president of the World Jewish Congress as well as chairman of the World Zionist Organization American Section.<ref name="jta.org">{{Cite web|date=October 21, 2014|title=Zionist leader Kalman Sultanik dies at 97|url=https://www.jta.org/2014/10/21/obituaries/zionist-leader-kalman-sultanik-dies-at-97|access-date=|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|language=en-US}}</ref> He founded the Jerusalem Confederation House and led the World Confederation of United Zionists for decades. Sultanik was also active in assisting the Polish community of Holocaust survivors.<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 21, 2014|title=Kalman Sultanik Obituary|url=https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/nytimes/172884097|access-date=|website=The New York Times powered by Legacy|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Eric J.|date=January 14, 2000|title=Polish Restitution Plan Slammed|url=http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/polish-restitution-plan-slammed/|access-date=|website=The New York Jewish Week|language=en-US}}</ref>
== Biography == Sultanik was born in Miechów, Poland, on April 12, 1917.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database — Kalman Sultanik|url=https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_view.php?PersonId=4975815|access-date=March 30, 2021|website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref> During the Second World War he participated in the underground resistance movement against the Nazis<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|last=Ryback|first=Timothy W.|date=November 7, 1993|title=Evidence of Evil|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/11/15/evidence-of-evil|access-date=|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us}}</ref> before being held in the Płaszów concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and, later, a camp in Dresden, Germany. From there he was forced on a death march to Theresienstadt.<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 20, 2014|title=''World Jewish Congress mourns passing of Zionist leader Kalman Sultanik z''l|url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/world-jewish-congress-mourns-passing-of-zionist-leader-kalman-sultanik-z-l|access-date=|website=World Jewish Congress|language=EN}}</ref>
Following his liberation in 1945, Sultanik served as a representative of Holocaust survivors in displaced persons camps at the twenty-second World Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland in 1946.<ref name="Sultanik">{{Cite web|last=Sultanik|first=Kalman|date=March 7, 2003|title=Carry the Legacy of Remembrance|url=https://forward.com/opinion/9403/carry-the-legacy-of-remembrance/|access-date=|website=The Forward|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1949, he became secretary general of the World Confederation of General Zionists<ref name="jta.org"/> and in 1977 he was elected as vice president of the World Jewish Congress.<ref>{{Cite web|date=December 1980|title=ACTIVITIES OF THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS 1975-1980|url=https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/acti/ACTIVITIES%20OF%20THE%20WORLD%20JEWISH%20CONGRESS%201975-1980%20REPORT%20TO%20THE%20SEVENTH%20PLENARY%20ASSEMBLY.pdf|access-date=|website=Berman Jewish Policy Archive|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1981, while serving as co-chair of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation’s International Auschwitz-Birkenau Preservation Committee along with Auschwitz survivor Ernest Michel, Sultanik organized an assembly of ten thousand Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem aimed at advancing a project to preserve Auschwitz.<ref name=":0" /> In 1988, Sultanik served as deputy chairman of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as well as chairman and treasurer of the budget and finance committee of the museum.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Berg|first=Raffi|date=January 26, 2009|title=Cash crisis threat to Auschwitz|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7800397.stm|access-date=}}</ref> He also helped raise $40 million from governments across Europe to preserve the site.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lempkowicz|first=Yossi|date=January 17, 2020|title=On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ronald Lauder will join Holoaust survivors and head of state on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp|language=en-GB|work=European Jewish News|url=https://ejpress.org/on-27-international-holocaust-remembrance-day-ronald-lauder-will-join-holoaust-survivors-and-head-of-state-on-the-site-of-the-auschwitz-birkenau-camp|access-date=}}</ref>
Subsequently, Sultanik received a law degree from La Salle Extension University in Chicago, Illinois, and also founded the Confederation House in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stern|first=Marissa|date=October 27, 2017|title=Bar and Bat Mitzvah Projects Teach Giving Back, Even After the Ceremony|language=en-GB|work=Jewish Exponent|url=https://www.jewishexponent.com/2017/10/27/bar-bat-mitzvah-projects-teach-giving-back-even-ceremony|access-date=|archive-date=August 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163317/https://www.jewishexponent.com/bar-bat-mitzvah-projects-teach-giving-back-even-ceremony/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
He died on October 14, 2014, in New York at age 97.
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultanik, Kalman}} Category:Zionist activists Category:General Zionism Category:Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp survivors Category:20th-century Polish Jews Category:1917 births Category:2014 deaths Category:Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Category:La Salle Extension University alumni Category:Polish Zionists