Internal feuding within CCOJB, the umbrella representative body of Jewish organisations in Belgium, has led to a call for early elections of a new President.

Since his election at the helm of CCOJB in March 2015, Serge Rozen has repeatedly faced criticism from members of the organisation’s steering committee who accused him of taking steps and decisions without consulting them.

‘’As President, I give the direction to follow and the members of the steering committee help me to chair the organisation,’’ Rozen, an engineer from profession, responded, as he refuted the accusations.

Rozen had succeeded Maurice Sosnowski who led the CCOJB for five years marked by a resurgence of anti-Semitism and the terrorist attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in which 4 people were killed in May 2014.

As relations between the new president and the steering committee members soured over the last months, Rozen came to the conclusion that it was impossible for him to be able to preside over the institution and decided to call for early elections of a new president and committee.

The feud hit a climax last week after Jewish magazine Regards, owned by CCLJ, the Jewish secular community center in Brussels, published an article containing virulent attacks against Serge Rozen in which he was accused of ‘’weakening the umbrella institution of Belgian Jewry.’’ The article quoted ‘’anonymous members’’ of the steering committee.

After CCLJ apologized for the article’s tone, the text was later writhdrawn from the magazine’s website which in turn published Serge Rozen’s right of reply. In this reply, Rozen denounced those within the Jewish community ‘’who are dividing instead of uniting.’’

Elections of a new president by the general assembly are set for October 13.

The CCOJB, which presents itself as ‘’the umbrella of the Belgian institutions outside Judaism religious matters’’ is composed of thirty French-speaking Jewish associations, mainly in Brussels.

In Flanders, the northern part of the country, the Jewish community of Antwerp is represented by the Forum der Joodse Organisaties whose president is Raphael Werner.

The Forum deplored the departure of Rozen as Werner praised the good cooperation between the two Jewish organisations.

Around 40,000 Jews live in Belgium.