Berlin's Jewish community elected new chairman
After a long conflict, Berlin's Jewish community has elected Gideon Joffe, 33, as its new chairman.
The community announced on Friday that Dr Joffe, would be a unifying figure between the Russian-speaking and German-speaking wings of the community.
Joffe, whose parents migrated to Germany from Latvia, was previously chairman of the community assembly. He was elected Thursday to head the executive board. He replaces Albert Meyer, 57, who resigned on Wednesday.
Currently, some two-thirds of the city's more than 12,000 community members are Russian and Eastern European Jews from other states of the CIS.
This has led to problems integrating in the past decade. German- born Jews contended that many of the newcomers had only a superficial knowledge of the German language or of Jewish culture.
Meyer who was elected Berlin's Jewish community leader in January 2004, told the weekly paper Juedische Allgemeine Wochenzeitung (official organ of the Zentralrat) that "irreconcilable differences in the community's leadership" had resulted in his decision to step down.
The Jevreyskaya Gazeta, a widely read Russian newspaper in Germany's Jewish community (but published by the publisher Nicholas Werner), earlier lashed out at Meyer, accusing him of intrigue. Paul Spiegel, the president of Germany's Council of Jews and a friend of Berlin-born Meyer, voiced concern.
Before the crisis came to a head, historian Julius Schoeps, the director of the Moses Mendelssohn Centre, had called on the city of Berlin's interior minister to help defuse the crisis by activating the state's supervisory control body. Some older Jewish worshippers in the city's western districts were considering establishing breakaway synagogue organizations, separating them from new-wave Russian and Eastern European Jews. There is already an orthodox jewish community Adass Jisroel which is not affiliated with Berlin's jewish community.
The community announced on Friday that Dr Joffe, would be a unifying figure between the Russian-speaking and German-speaking wings of the community.
Joffe, whose parents migrated to Germany from Latvia, was previously chairman of the community assembly. He was elected Thursday to head the executive board. He replaces Albert Meyer, 57, who resigned on Wednesday.
Currently, some two-thirds of the city's more than 12,000 community members are Russian and Eastern European Jews from other states of the CIS.
This has led to problems integrating in the past decade. German- born Jews contended that many of the newcomers had only a superficial knowledge of the German language or of Jewish culture.
Meyer who was elected Berlin's Jewish community leader in January 2004, told the weekly paper Juedische Allgemeine Wochenzeitung (official organ of the Zentralrat) that "irreconcilable differences in the community's leadership" had resulted in his decision to step down.
The Jevreyskaya Gazeta, a widely read Russian newspaper in Germany's Jewish community (but published by the publisher Nicholas Werner), earlier lashed out at Meyer, accusing him of intrigue. Paul Spiegel, the president of Germany's Council of Jews and a friend of Berlin-born Meyer, voiced concern.
Before the crisis came to a head, historian Julius Schoeps, the director of the Moses Mendelssohn Centre, had called on the city of Berlin's interior minister to help defuse the crisis by activating the state's supervisory control body. Some older Jewish worshippers in the city's western districts were considering establishing breakaway synagogue organizations, separating them from new-wave Russian and Eastern European Jews. There is already an orthodox jewish community Adass Jisroel which is not affiliated with Berlin's jewish community.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home