All Jewish members of the Socialist Party of Belgium rejected today an invitation from their party to run on the Socialist tickets in municipal elections in Belgium, in protest against the party’s renomination of the Mayor of Antwerp.
Mayor Lode Crayeback was the center of a widespread controversy last spring, following an incident in an Antwerp cafe in which he insulted two Jews when he had allegedly been drunk. The Mayor later apologized in a public letter to the Jewish community and said he would not be a candidate for re-election.
Despite that statement, the Socialist party decided to put his name at the head of their list, thus automatically assuring his re-election. The mayor canceled his letter of resignation after the party renominated him.
The elections are scheduled for next Sunday. Five well-known members of Belgian Jewry are named on the Liberal party lists for the balloting.
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