Three countries suspended their European Jewish Congress memberships to protest a vote extending term limits of the executive board.
Austria, France and Portugal said they believe the EJC is retroactively extending the term from two to four years.
Sunday’s vote at the EJC’s General Assembly in Paris was 51-34. Board members, including President Moshe Kantor, will now serve until June 2011.
It is believed the suspensions reflect the tension in an organization in which Western European members have at times objected to the growing influence of Eastern Europeans.
The three delegations were at odds with Kantor, a Russian billionaire, even before he defeated a French candidate, Pierre Besnainou, last June to become the first Eastern European president of the 42-nation EJC.
Ariel Muzicant, the president of the Austrian Jewish community, told JTA that legal action will follow, but he would not specify any details.
Talk circulated at the General Assembly that some Western European members would create a separate body excluding non-European Union countries such as Russia.
The European Jewish Congress’ longtime secretary-general, Serge Cwajgenbaum of France, in defending the vote to extend term limits said the decision is not really retroactive. He said the General Assembly can vote at any time to remove an elected official.
The announcement of the French delegation was made by Richard Prasquier, the president of the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, the CRIF. Prasquier, a vice president of the EJC, and eight of France’s 14 delegates walked out of the meeting.
“The decision to extend term limits retroactively is unethical and illegal,” he said.
France was among the founding countries of the EJC, a subsidiary of the World Jewish Congress, 20 years ago.
Also at the General Assembly, the EJC adopted its first formal constitution. The body, which has been run using informal bylaws, has been debating the adoption of a formal constitution for 15 years.
The vote was 63-22; a two-thirds majority was needed for adoption.
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