BRUSSELS (EJP)---A doctor and university professor was elected Tuesday new president of the umbrella representative body of Jewish secular organizations in Belgium, known as CCOJB.

The 57-year-old Maurice Sosnowski, head of the service of anesthesiology and intensive care at a Brussels university hospital, got 71 percent of the votes of delegates at a general assembly of 37 Jewish associations.

He was the sole candidate after his rival dropped his candidacy last month.

Sosnowski is the brother-in-law of Joseph Wybran, a former head of the Belgian Jewish community murdered in October 1989 in Brussels presumably by Palestinians terrorists.

The new president, who succeeds Joël Rubinfeld, praised the serene climate which surrounded his election after a period of internal community tensions.

Sosnowski has not been active in Jewish organizations - except when he was a student - but he says that “this give me a new glance”.

He said that his objectives during his presidency would be to unite the Jewish community around common objectives, work “by consensus” and improve relations with the political sphere.

The fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are also on his agenda.

“We have to show that the community is united even if we know that it is extremely diverse," he said.

The CCOJB ('Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique') was founded in 1970 and represents 39 Jewish associations, mainly in Brussels, a city where 18,000 Jews live.

The 20,000 Jews who live in Antwerp, in the north of the country, have their own local umbrella group, the Forum of Jewish organisations. “This doesn’t mean that he we cannot work together,” says Maurice Sosnowski.