When former World Jewish Congress President Philip Klutznick stepped down in 1979, Bronfman was asked to take over as acting head of the organization, then was formally elected President by the Seventh Plenary Assembly, in January 1981. Together with his deputy, Israel Singer, Bronfman led the World Jewish Congress in becoming the preeminent international Jewish organization that it is today. Initiatives such as those seeking to help free Soviet Jewry; to expose Austrian President Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past; and to help victims of the Holocaust and their heirs to acquire compensation (including by Swiss banks); raised Bronfman's international profile during the 1980s and 1990s.