Berlin?s Neue Synagoge Image by Wikicommons

A court in Berlin ruled today that the city must pay the city’s state-funded Jewish community, its annual subsidy, according to wire reports.

The court described its decision as an “expedited procedure,” pending resolution of a dispute between the city and the community because the community has been in serious financial straits for months. The city’s annual subsidy to the community, which has 10,000 members, is more than $7.3 million.

Berlin?s Neue Synagoge Image by Wikicommons

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

”Today’s interim decision was designed to sustain the community until the court’s final verdict,” the court stated in its ruling.

The city stopped paying the Jewish Community last month, citing the organization’s failure to respond to a request for information on the number of people employed by the community and their salaries. Community chairman Giddeon Joffe initially refused to give the city the information but said he would do so by the end of June.

Joffe refused today to be interviewed by the Forward.

As a consequence of the lost funding in the second quarter of 2013 the community was forced to borrow money.

Joffe told the Forward in May that he had obtained a loan to cover salaries, using Jewish community property as collateral. Joffe refused to divulge the amount that was borrowed or the location of the property.

On May 23 a two-thirds majority of the community’s representative assembly authorized Joffe to take out the loan during a stormy meeting in which supporters and critics of Joffe shouted blunt obscenities at each other. Police were called in after a physical brawl erupted that led to the filing of six criminal complaints.

Joffe’s opponents are conducting a campaign for new elections to unseat him.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount