Head of German Central Committee of Jews Knobloch is to step down

08.02.2010

The President of Germany's Central Committee of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, is to step down from her post when her current term ends in November, the directorate announced on Sunday 7 February.

Knobloch said she had decided not to seek a renewed term in office in order to consciously bring about a generational change. The 77-year-old is one of the last German Jews belonging to a generation that experienced the Holocaust in person. Knobloch countered speculation that she had been pressured to give up her post ahead of time, and told journalists that the Committee's senior members had given her their, "full, unlimited trust."

Knobloch, the first woman to hold the post, is likely to be succeeded by the Committee's current Vice-President Dieter Graumann, a Frankfurt businessman who was born after World War II.

The Central Committee of Jews unites 107 communities representing roughly 106,000 Jews across Germany, just over half the country's estimated Jewish population.

Source: dpa.