The Würzburg doctor has again been elected head of the Bavarian state association, to which twelve Jewish communities belong. He takes over the post for a further four years.
Josef Schuster, 69, has been re-elected President of the State Association of Israelite Religious Communities (IKG) in Bavaria. Schuster takes over the office, which he has held since 2002, for another four years, as the state association announced on Tuesday in Munich. The previous Vice Presidents Ilse Danziger and Anna Zisler were also re-elected.
The Würzburg doctor Schuster has also been President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany since 2014. Schuster was born in Haifa/Israel in 1954. In 1956 his parents returned with him to his father’s homeland of Lower Franconia. Josef Schuster’s father David was the chairman of the Jewish religious community in Würzburg and Lower Franconia for many years; he has held this office since 1998.
Schuster studied medicine in Würzburg and set up his own practice as an internist in Würzburg in 1988. He is married and has two adult children.
According to the state association of Jewish religious communities in Bavaria, twelve Jewish communities with a total of 8,440 members belong to it. This is the status at the end of 2021. “It can be assumed that the number of members has increased due to the refugees from Ukraine in 2022,” said the association. However, no figures are available for this yet.