Germany’s main Jewish leader steps down

Dieter Graumann, 64, is the first person born after the Holocaust to have led German Jewry’s umbrella group

By AP 31 October 2014, 2:03 pm

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In this Sept. 19, 2014 file photo, Dieter Graumann, leader of Central Council of Jews in Germany is pictured during a visit at the Abubakr Mosque in Frankfurt, central Germany. (AP Photo/dpa, Boris Roessler, File)

BERLIN — Germany’s main Jewish leader, who in 2010 became the first person born after the Holocaust to take the job, says he’s stepping down.

Dieter Graumann said Friday he won’t seek a second term leading the Central Council of Jews in Germany in a vote November 30. The 64-year-old said the job, whose holder works on an honorary basis, “demanded an extraordinary amount of energy and time.”

The group’s vice president, Josef Schuster, said he will run for the presidency.

Graumann was among the leading critics of a 2012 German court ruling that male infant circumcision amounts to bodily harm. Parliament later approved legislation explicitly permitting the practice.

In September, he organized a major rally against anti-Semitism after tensions over the Gaza conflict spilled over into anti-Jewish slogans and violence at demonstrations in Europe.