29 November 2007
The Jewish umbrella body, the CCOJB, representing Jewish secular organizations in Belgium has elected Joel Rubinfeld as its new president for a four-year term, after a tumultuous and drawn out campaign. He succeeds Philippe Markiewicz. The 39-year-old Rubinfeld won 25 of the 38 votes of delegates at a general assembly, securing for the first time in five successive rounds the two-thirds majority required to be elected under the organization’s constitution. He defeated 63-year-old Norbert Cigé.
Rubinfeld campaigned for a change with the policy of the outgoing president. After his election, he said: “I want to bring together and reconcile the community.” A former secretary general of the Belgian-Israeli friendship association, Rubinfeld founded a think tank in 2003 which debates topics such as democratization, globalization and the Middle East. CCOJB represents 39 Jewish associations, mainly in Brussels, a city where 15,000 Jews live.
