Prague Jewish Community leader defies vote to oust him

Members of the Prague Jewish Community have voted to oust their chairman and governing board, but chairman Tomas Jelinek has so far refused to quit, saying the decision was not valid according to community statutes. So far, Jelinek is staying put at his office in the heart of Prague’s historic Jewish quarter. Just 230 members of the 1,600-strong community cast ballots on Sunday at an assembly attended only by Jelinek opponents. The voters had formed after Jelinek's controversial re-election in April 2004. Sunday’s vote confirmed the ouster of Jelinek. His opponents, many of whom have ties to the previous leadership, have objected to several of his steps, including the sacking of Prague's chief rabbi Karel Sidon and the distribution of community members’ names and e-mail addresses to a public relations agency. Petr Halva, head of the community’s election oversight committee, said the confidence vote was void because the opposition meeting was unofficial and lacked proper supervision.