As of: February 22, 2024, 4:45 p.m
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Gideon Joffe, chairman of the Jewish community, speaks at a commemoration event on the 85th anniversary of the night of pogroms against Jews in the Nazi state in the community center of the Jewish community in Berlin.
© Christophe Gateau/dpa
The Central Council of Jews and the Jewish Community of Berlin have been at odds for some time.
Now the court at the Central Council has made a momentous judgment.
Berlin - The Jewish community in Berlin could lose its voting rights in all committees of the Central Council of Jews for a year.
The independent court made a corresponding recommendation to the Central Council on Thursday.
The Presidium of the Central Council will decide next Tuesday whether it will be implemented.
It would be the culmination of a years-long dispute between the Central Council and one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany.
The reason for the internal court's recommendation are doubts about the election of the local parliament last year.
At that time, community members had successfully sued in the same court against a short-term change in electoral regulations that imposed an age limit of 70 years for candidacy.
The court ordered the election to be stopped.
However, the Central Council court does not consider the leadership of the community around chairman Gideon Joffe to be responsible.
She ignored the ruling and went through with the election.
The court therefore initially imposed a penalty payment and then, in the next step, made the recommendation to suspend the municipality's voting rights.
In the election in September, Joffe and his supporters were confirmed in the local council.
The opposition alliance Tikkun called the election illegal and protested against it.
There has been a deep rift in the community for years.
Already after Joffe's election in 2015, there were internal allegations of irregularities.
The dispute between the community and the Central Council of Jews also has a long history.
There was a recent conflict, among other things, over how to deal with the Abraham Geiger Kolleg rabbinical school in Potsdam.
In 2022 there were allegations of abuse of power and sexual harassment at the college.
In January 2023, the Berlin community took over the shares of the founder Walter Homolka and the sponsorship of the college.
This was met with opposition from the Central Council, which wanted a fresh start.
dpa