Haaretz
Adar 10, 5766
New York political leaders and an
umbrella group of Jewish organizations on Thursday gave up their
opposition to using British architect Richard Rogers for the $1.7 billion
expansion of the Jacob Javits Convention
Center in
Manhattan.
Rogers came under fire last month for his involvement
with a recently created organization of British architects - Architects
and Planners for Justice in Palestine - that had supported an economic
boycott of Israel.
Controversy erupted after Rogers allowed the
group in early February to hold its first meeting at his office in
London.
Although Rogers cut his ties to the group last week, state
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner
sought to have Roberts stripped of his role at the convention center,
which is named after the late Sen. Javits, a prominent New York Jewish
politician.
Rogers is in charge of plans to nearly double the size
of the convention center by the year 2010.
Concerns about his links
with the British group were allayed after Silver, Weiner and Rogers met on
Thursday in the Manhattan offices of the Conference of Presidents, which
represents over 50 U.S. Jewish organizations.
"Rogers told us he
regretted hosting the meeting with that group and that he would never have
hosted it if he had known the organization might call for a boycott of
Israel," Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of
Presidents, said after the meeting.
Hoenlein said Rogers explained
on Thursday that he had allowed the group to use his office at the request
of a friend and that he had attended only the first 10 minutes of the
meeting.
"He did it as a convenience to a friend and has
disassociated himself from the group," Hoenlein said.
Rogers, best
known for his design of the Pompidou Center in Paris, said on Thursday he
had no idea the architect group's meeting would discuss an anti-Israel
economic boycott, a spokeswoman for Silver said.