Hey Morn!
Give Yourself
a Break!
New Leader, Old Ties
German Jewish head seeks normalization
of relations with non-Jews.
TOBY AXELROD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Berlin
G
Sign the kids up for
Arts & Sports
at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
Basketball • Rollerblade • Girls Sports
Arts • Crafts • and much. much more!
Sign up today for one of the many exciting
classes taught by our qualified staff!
For more information, please call Sports and Recreation at (248) 661-7683
or Youth Services at (248) 661-7687 in West Bloomfield
or (248) 967-4030 in Oak Park.
erman Jewry is entering a
new era of leadership at a
. critical juncture for the
community.
Five months after the death of
Ignatz Bubis, the Central Council of
Jews in Germany has elected a
Dusseldorf theatrical agent, Paul
Spiegel, as its new president.
Sunday's election of the 62-year-
old by the nine-member council is
seen as a bridge between the aging
generation of Holocaust survivors
and the younger generation of
German Jews who, to a great extent,
want to put the past behind them.
But his election also signifies a
reluctance by German Jewish leaders
to pass the leadership baton to the
post-Holocaust generation.
Bubis, who became a major pub-
lic figure in Germany while serving
as president from 1992 until his
death in August, had reportedly
wanted Spiegel, who was vice presi-
dent, to succeed him as the head of
the group that oversees religious,
communal and financial matters for
Germany's 80,000-member Jewish
community.
Spiegel, head of Dusseldorf's
Jewish community since 1984, was
chosen by a 6-3 vote over Charlotte
Knobloch, 67, head of Munich's
Jewish community since 1985.
At a press conference after the elec-
tion, Spiegel said his top priority
would be the integration of the 50,000
Jewish emigres from the former Soviet
Union who came to Germany during
the past 10 years. As a result of their
influx, Germany has Europe's fastest-
growing Jewish community.
They need financial and spiritual
sustenance, Spiegel said, adding,
"They know they are Jews, but they
don't know what Judaism is."
He also said he will attempt to
bring German Jews and non-Jews
closer together — a task that Bubis,
in an interview shortly before his
death, said he had failed to accom-
plish.
At the news conference, Spiegel
said the normalization of relations
between German Jews and non-Jews
"has yet to happen," but that he is
hopeful that it will.
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
D Dan & Betty Kahn Building Eugene & Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
6600 West Maple Road • West Bloomfield, MI
Jimmy Prentis Morris Building • A. Alfred Taubman Jewish Community Campus
15110 West Ten Mile Road • Oak Park, MI
Kiss And Make Up
New European Jewish Congress leader
strikes conciliatory note.
The
• • e
WHERE YOU GET THE
WHITE GLOVE TREATMENT
AT AFFORDABLE PRICES !
24111 Civic Center Dr. • Southfield, MI • 48034
(248) 352-0208
1/14
2000
20
Forest
est City Management. Inc . Apartment Division. does not discriminate on the basis of handicapped status in the admission
or access to or ti eatme.M. or employment in its programs and activities. Equal Housing Opportunity/Equal Opportunity Employer
LEE YANOWITCH
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Paris
T
he newly elected leader of
European Jewry has mend-
ed fences with the New
York-based World Jewish
Congress.
At issue was how French Jewish
leader Henri Hajdenberg — who was
elected Sunday in Brussels to serve as
president of the European Jewish
Congress — regards European Jewry's
place when it comes to Holocaust-era
restitution issues. Hajdenberg, 52,
replaces German Jewish leader Ignatz
Bubis, who died last August.
The EJC, which is the European
branch of the WJC, serves as the
diplomatic representative in discus-
sions involving 2 million European
Jews and their respective governments.
In the campaign platform
Hajdenberg set out in Brussels before
the vote, he pledged, "to give more
responsibility to the Jewish communi-
ties of Europe for restitution issues and
on how to divide various European
funds." That function has largely been
handled by the WJC and the World
Jewish Restitution Organization.
As president of CRIF, France's
umbrella group for Jewish organiza-