For a brief moment that Sunday, it looked as if the election would be quite normal. At ten o’clock in the morning the helpers in the sports hall of the Jewish community in Berlin began counting the votes of the members. But in the late afternoon, what one member had already feared was confirmed: “The result is more or less clear.” 17 out of 17 seats in the council of representatives will be occupied by candidates around the incumbent chairman Gideon Joffe.
This Sunday’s election was just another highlight in a dispute that has been going on for months about Joffe and his alliance “Koach!” (“Strength”). The opposition around “Le’kulam!” (“For everyone”) had put up its own candidates, but had previously asked them to boycott the vote. The “Tikkun” (“Repair”) alliance, on the other hand, withdrew its candidates collectively. Because at the end of July, the Berlin community was forbidden by the Central Council of Jews to hold the election at all.
Only in May did the board change the election regulations
With almost 10,000 members and over 300 employees, the Jewish community in Berlin is one of the largest in Germany and organizes large areas of community life for Jews in the capital. These include synagogues, schools and care facilities. The Berlin Senate supports this work financially on the basis of the 1994 State Treaty. Subsidies of almost 14 million euros are planned for this year.
The elections for municipal leadership have repeatedly been accompanied by arguments in recent years. This time, the dispute ignited over a new electoral code, which provides for some serious changes in the voting process. The board, led by Joffe, issued it at the end of May. Accordingly, members who are older than 70 years are no longer allowed to run for the now 17-strong Assembly of Representatives; Members of other Jewish organizations such as the TuS Makkabi sports club, the Central Council of Jews or the Jewish Claims Conference were also excluded.
“Mr. Joffe systematically paralyzed all possible opponents because the electoral regulations state that they are not allowed to run for a variety of reasons,” explained Lala Süsskind in the Jewish general. The 77-year-old was the community leader herself between 2008 and 2012 and had considered running for office again. “Maintaining power” is the main reason for the new electoral code, says Süsskind. Together with her husband, she has therefore complained to the Central Council against the new regulations.
Long-time companions are also opposed to the chairman
Chairman Joffe, on the other hand, sees himself and the leadership as victims of “intimidation, harassment and harassment,” as the Jewish community puts it. The new electoral code was enacted to invigorate the community. “One idea was to make the access to the election a bit more different, in such a way that it is a little more popular,” said Joffe recently on the RBB broadcaster. The number of members in the various Jewish communities in Germany had recently increased slightly, also due to the refugees from the Ukraine. In Berlin, however, it is estimated that the congregation has lost several thousand members in recent years.
In a six-page statement on the new electoral regulations, Joffe also addresses individual points of criticism. The age limit was introduced “to ensure effective and efficient political management”. Joffe justifies the fact that members of other organizations have now also been expelled by citing conflicts of interest: “We don’t want servants of two masters in the municipal parliament.”
Joffe sees the Central Council’s decision that the election should not take place in the first place as inadmissible interference in the affairs of the Jewish communities as a whole, which are organized on a federal basis. The decision of the independent court at the Central Council “clearly goes too far, is obviously purely politically motivated and violates both the Central Council’s own statutes and the statutes of the Jewish community in Berlin”.
Municipalities are now facing fines
However, criticism does not only come from the Central Council or Joffe’s predecessor. Joffe’s longtime companions are now also opposing the chairman, who has been in office since 2012. Emanuel Adiniaev worked with Joffe for several years, now he went as the top candidate of the rival alliance “Le’kulam!” into the election. “An open, transparent, harmonious community is essential for me,” he writes on the Facebook page of “Le’kulam!”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/.”I was on Herr’s team for four years Joffe and a supporter for almost four years, that’s true, but our views are now far apart. I would not and cannot support this electoral code.”
The municipal leadership is now threatened with fines and possibly also temporary exclusion from the bodies of the Central Council. Adiniaev, Süsskind and other critics of the board have announced that they will not give up their opposition to the election after Sunday. Members of the “Tikkun” alliance have therefore recently asked the governing mayor and the responsible culture senator Joe Chialo (both CDU) for support. The Senate says, however, that they do not want to interfere in the internal affairs of the community.