German-Jewish bank owner demands it stop enabling BDS

The Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany – a part owner of the Colognebased Bank for Social Economy – called on its management to end all business relations with groups that support a boycott of the Jewish state.

“The Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany will henceforth use its influence to actively counter every form of the BDS movement. For this reason, the ZWST [the board] calls on the Bank for Social Economy [Bank für Sozialwirtschaft] to end its business relations with BDS organizations,” spokeswoman Renate Müller told The Jerusalem Post last week.

The Central Welfare Board owns 0.7% of the bank, is one of six main owners listed on the bank’s website, and has a member on its board of directors.

The bank maintains at least four accounts that directly or indirectly support the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign.

It is unclear how the Central Welfare Board will act to change what it calls the bank’s antisemitic support of BDS. The board could sell its shares in the bank and close its account.

Aron Schuster is slated to be the next executive director of the Central Welfare Board. He will replace long-time executive director Benjamin Bloch, who played a key role in shutting down the account of the hardcore BDS group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East in 2016. The bank later reversed its decision and re-opened the BDS account in 2017.

Jaffa Flohr, a spokesman for the new president of the Jewish National FundKeren Kayemeth LeIsrael in Germany, told the Post that she expressed solidarity with the Central Welfare Board of Jews and joined it in urging the Bank for Social Economy to terminate all BDS business relations. The Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael maintains an account with the bank.

Uwe Becker, the deputy mayor of Frankfurt and the city’s treasurer, told the Post last week, “The city of Frankfurt will, in the future, only work with banks who do not maintain business relations with the antisemitic BDS movement, and, accordingly, with BDS organizations.”

He added, “I consider it extremely problematic when banks, including in Germany, maintain business relations with organizations that incite antisemitism and place Israel’s existence in question. Against this background, the Bank for Social Economy should reconsider its position, particularly since the German Bundestag has also in the meantime assessed BDS as antisemitic.”