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Central Council of Jews: Schuster remains president for another four years

Status: 27/11/2022 18:11

Josef Schuster remains president of the Central Council of Jews for another four years. The Presidium unanimously confirmed the 68-year-old in office. Schuster has already announced plans for his third term.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, was confirmed in office in Frankfurt am Main. The Presidium unanimously elected the 68-year-old doctor from Würzburg for another four years, the Board announced.

Mark Dainow from Offenbach am Main and Abraham Lehrer from Cologne were also confirmed as vice presidents.

Schuster has been Chairman of the Board since 2014, succeeding Dieter Graumann. In 2018 he was re-elected for a second term.

Schuster: “Positive elements of Judaism” in the foreground

After his election, Schuster announced that in his third term as president, he wanted to place more emphasis on the positive elements of Judaism in Germany. “We don’t always want to be just moral cautionaries, we want to find answers to the social questions of our time and thus create encounters and break down prejudices,” he said.

Jewish Academy to be opened in Frankfurt

The centerpiece of this effort is the opening of the Jewish Academy of the Central Council in Frankfurt, scheduled for spring 2024. “I am also concerned with constantly developing the work within the Jewish community,” Schuster stressed. He is delighted that, after long deliberations, a new jurisdiction has now been introduced for the communities.

Schuster has served on the Executive Committee since 1999

Schuster joined the Presidium of the Central Council in 1999 and served as Vice President from 2010 to 2014. In 1998 he assumed the presidency of the Israelite religious community in Würzburg and Lower Franconia and in 2002 he became president of the State Association of Religious Communities Israelite nuns in Bavaria. Schuster is also Vice President of the Jewish World Congress.

He was born on March 20, 1954 in Haifa, Israel. During the Nazi era, his family, whose history in Lower Franconia goes back more than 400 years, had to flee Germany. When she returned to the region in the mid-1950s, Schuster was two years old. After graduating from high school and studying medicine, he completed his specialist training. In 1988, married and father of two, he opened his own internal medicine practice. He led them until 2020.

The Central Council of Jews

The Central Council is the umbrella organization of the Jewish communities in Germany. Under its umbrella are organized 23 state associations with more than 100 communities. The President represents the Central Council in talks with politicians, the media, associations and religious communities. The council is the supreme decision-making body and meets once a year. Approves the budget and supervises the work of the Executive Committee.

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