The Founder

Karl Kahane (1920-1993) was an Austrian entrepreneur and a close friend of Bruno Kreisky. He supported politicians and peace activists at the time of the first peace talks between Israel and Egypt. Discreetly working behind the scenes, he acted as a go-between between Sadat and the Israelis and became a personal friend of the Egyptian President. He also entertained personal contacts with Arafat and felt close to the Palestinian people. Kahane said of himself: “I categorise neither my friends nor employees, neither my sympathies nor antipathies according to religion or race.”

Asked once by an interviewer whether he used his considerable fortune to support the State of Israel, he answered, “My money has not been earned in order to support people who break the bones of others and do to them what has been done to the Jews for two thousand years.” He considered it his duty to be on the side of the weak. According to his commitment to peace, the KKF continues to support bridge building projects in the Middle East.

(Photographs and adapted quotes from: Herlinde Koelbl, Jüdische Portraits, Photographien und Interviews, S. Fischer Verlag 1989)