Europe's Jews to have own parliament

Elections for the European Jewish Parliament, which will 'serve to bring together and coordinate voices of Jewish communities across continent', to be conducted via Internet

Ynetnews|Published: 08.29.11 , 18:00

Many in the Jewish world have envisioned the establishment of a European Jewish Parliament, which would gather together the thoughts, beliefs and ideas as well as representing and voicing the concerns and inspirations of European Jews towards European and world leaders.

The European Jewish Union (EJU) has announced the establishment of a European Jewish Parliament, which will "serve to bring together and coordinate the voices of Jewish communities across the European continent (including Eastern, Central and Western Europe), to address challenges and to present innovative and relevant responses."

The idea of the creation of a European Jewish Parliament was envisioned by Shimon Peres, the president of the State of Israel, when several years ago he called for the establishment of such an organization.

The European Jewish Parliament would address all issues by creating a unified platform for debate, discussion and decision making. The European Jewish Parliament would ensure that the interests of Jewish communities are included and properly represented in this new and exciting platform.

Jews residing in the EU countries and countries of the EJU family, regardless of their political, religious or communal affiliations will have an opportunity to be elected and to elect the Parliament.

120 members

The European Jewish Parliament shall be designed in a framework of 120 members, who will consist of representatives from all walks of life including; public figures, lay leaders, politicians, artists, writers, musicians, youth leaders and religious mentors, with the common denominator being their Jewish identity and passion for furthering Jewish interests on an international scale.

The Parliament headquarters are to be based in Brussels with regular General Assemblies. The Parliament's constitution will be prepared in the first year by a Constitution Committee, which will be established immediately after the elections and will consist of members of the Parliament. The draft constitution will be presented for debate, review and vote by the General Assembly.

The elections to the European Jewish Parliament will be conducted via the Internet (through website: www.eju.org, where all relevant election procedure details shall appear), to enable full transparency and accessibility to each and every Jew in Europe.

All those who are interested in becoming, or recommending candidates, are invited to register their candidacy on the elections web page. Jewish members of the public are welcome to suggest their candidates.

Registration for the elections began on August 15 and the results are to be announced in October 2011.