18 September 2007
Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany [Zentralrat], has announced his candidacy for the board of the Jewish community of Berlin. The Zentralrat has distanced itself from the move, which could be a first step to a candidacy for president of the Berlin community, the largest Jewish community in Germany. Zentralrat president Charlotte Knobloch and the two vice presidents, Dieter Graumann and Salomon Korn, issued a statement saying that Kramer's decision had not been coordinated with them. They emphasized that the German Jewish umbrella organization would remain neutral regarding the Berlin vote. Kramer, 39, is a political appointee who has worked for the Central Council of Jews since 1999. Previously he served as an assistant to the European director of the Jewish Claims Conference. Berlin's Jewish community has a large number of members who immigrated from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union countries in the past two decades.
