American billionaire George Soros is passing control of his multi-billion-dollar foundation to his son Alexander.
The Hungarian-born Jewish father told the Wall Street Journal that his 37-year-old son, the second youngest of five children, had "earned it."
Alexander has previously written of how “I am the son of a Hungarian Jew who survived the Nazis… my politics are shaped by my family history and being Jewish.”
The younger Soros is also a founding chairman of the Bend the Arc Jewish Action and is on the board of the Centre for Jewish History.He also donated £180,000 to the Jewish Council for Education and Research, a group that strongly aligned itself with former US president Barack Obama, in 2012.
Speaking about Israel in an earlier interview, he added: “I will always support Israel as a nation state, but I don’t live there.”
However, he has been widely critical of the current Israeli government. In a recent article for CNN, he wrote that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has “adopted increasingly aggressive and hostile policies towards its Arab population, elevating extremists to cabinet rank, authorising new settlements in the occupied West Bank and proposing dramatic new curbs on the independence of the judiciary.”
Alexander told the Wall Street Journal he was "more political" than his father, and that one of his top aims would be to push back against a possible second term by former president Donald Trump.
He said: "As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too.”
George used his wealth amassed as a financier in the 1970s and 80s to create the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which support a broad arrange of causes and NGOs worldwide, ranging from good-governance and democracy-building programs to liberal public policy initiatives.
He has also been one of the biggest donors in the United States to the Democratic Party.
The younger Soros said the OSF will continue down a similar path his father charted, pushing free speech, criminal justice reform, minority and refugee rights and backing liberal politicians.
But he also wants to embrace voting rights, abortion and gender equity initiatives.
An OSF spokesperson said: "Alex is Chair of the Open Society Foundations” without giving any further details.
He is also the sole family member on the investment committee for Soros Fund Management, the firm that oversees family and foundation money as well as being president of his father's "super PAC".
