Board of Deputies Community Briefing 21st November 2019 copy-min copy

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COMMUNITY BRIEFING
Board of Deputies launches updated Jewish
Manifesto ahead of General Election
Ahead of next month’s General Election, The Board
of Deputies this week launched its Jewish Manifesto,
designed to ensure that all political parties take into
account the concerns of Britain’s 300,000-strong
Jewish community when setting out their own
proposals for government.
The Jewish Manifesto is a comprehensive policy
document for the community covering areas
including antisemitism, Israel, education, religious
freedom issues such as Shechita and Brit Milah, and
much more besides. As well as detailed information
on each of these areas, the policies have once again
been summarised into ‘Ten Commitments’ to give
politicians an overall flavour of the community’s
antisemitism by outsourcing disciplinary processes
to an independent provider to eradicate any risk of
systemic partisanship and factionalism.
The document will be sent to all parliamentary
candidates, and we will be asking them to sign up to
the Ten Commitments on social media.
Beyond this election, the Board of Deputies will use
this manifesto in its engagement with Government,
parliamentarians and other decision makers and it is
hoped that communities will use the document,
which will be available online and in print, in their
own engagement with their local MPs.

priorities. It has been updated to reflect policy
developments since previous manifestos, with a new
section on Brexit.
The proliferation of antisemitism in politics, and
particularly within political parties, is an ever-growing
concern among British Jews. The Manifesto calls on
political parties to adopt the International Holocaust
Remembrance Alliance working definition of
antisemitism in full, with all its examples and without
caveats. It also calls on political parties to take steps
to eradicate
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said:
“The Jewish Manifesto presents candidates with a
clearly thought out and agreed set of policy
requests. We call on all candidates to sign up and
show support to their local Jewish community. We
would also encourage all members of the Jewish
community to engage proactively in the election.
Reach out to candidates and ask them to support
the Jewish Manifesto’s ‘Ten Commitments’.”
Read the Jewish Manifesto here.
Condemnation on antisemitism by Conservative
candidate and Plaid Cymru activist
Board of Deputies President Vice President Amanda Bowman has welcomed the decision to suspend
Conservative candidate for Leeds North East, Amjad Bashir.
Amanda said:“The Conservative Party has made the correct decision to suspend Amjad Bashir, the
Conservative candidate for Leeds North East. His repellent claim that British Jews travelling to Israel return
as ‘brainwashed extremists’ has no place in a General Election campaign, and is particularly offensive in a
constituency like Leeds North East with a thriving Jewish community.”
The Board of Deputies also commented on suspended Plaid Cymru activist Sahar Al-Saifi, who claimed to
have undertaken Board of Deputies training.
A spokeperson said: “As Sahar Al-Faifi has dragged us into the row over her social media posts, we would
like to clarify some facts. We met Sahar Al-Faifi to confront her over concerns we had over antisemitic
social media postings. Ms Al-Faifi apologised to us, and made some amendments to her social media
output. However, we made clear that the situation still remained unsatisfactory."
Read a full report here and the BBC story here.

At Sunday's AJEX Parade in London, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl laid a wreath at the
Cenotaph for all the Deputies who gave their lives in the two World Wars. Denise Lester led a delegation of
Deputies at the parade. Senior Vice President Sheila Gewolb and Public Affairs Director Phil Rosenberg also
attended
Jewish Living Experience Exhibition in Borehamwood
hosts event for Inter Faith Week
The Jewish Living Experience exhibition in Borehamwood Hertfordshire celebrated Inter Faith Week with an
event at the local Synagogue. The Worshipful Mayor Cllr Allan Plancey and Town Mayor Cllr Simon Rubner
welcomed visitors and gave speeches explaining aspects of Judaism to the local community.
Some 35 guests from a variety of faiths attended the event, organised by the JLEX Committee at
Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue. Visitors were addressed by Board of Deputies Vice President Edwin
Shuker, who gave an overview of the organisation's work. As part of the evening, the synagogue’s senior
rabbi, Alex Chapper, took guests on a guided tour of the synagogue.
During its run in Borehamwood, the Jewish Living Experience exhibition has been seen by around 1,000
children, 100 teachers and 30 care professionals in Hertsmere.
Left to right: Rabbi Alex Chapper, Town Mayor Cllr Simon Rubner, Board of Deputies Vice President Edwin
Shuker and Borehamwood Worshipful Mayor Rabbi Allan Plancey at the Jewish Living Experience interfaith
event. Photo: Gary Perlmutter
Interfaith audiences hear Israeli and Palestinian speak
about their hopes for peace
Over the past week, hundreds of people have heard two peace activists – one Israeli and one Palestinian –
speak about their hopes for reconciliation.
Palestinian Dawoud and Israeli Eran were speaking at ‘Invest in Peace’ events, a joint initiative between the
Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, with the endorsement of
the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, which invites Christians and Jews to support Israeli-Palestinian
peacebuilding.
Both speakers talked about their family backgrounds, their childhoods in Israel/Palestine, and how each of
them came to be peace activists. They answered questions from the audience about topics such as a twostate
solution, the history of the region, and education.

Among attendees at the events were Mayor of Lewisham Damien Egan and prospective parliamentary
candidates from a range of parties.
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “We’re proud to have initiated an Invest in Peace
programme which presents challenging dialogues to packed and highly engaged meetings across the
country. This is about helping to export peace and planting the seeds of reconciliation.”
The Revd Peter Colwell, Deputy General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, said: “With
so much violence, hatred and suspicion in the world, there is a critical need for different faith groups to
come together. Our message to extremists on all sides is simple: You will not divide us. This project delivers
that message loud and clear.”
The events took place at Catford and Bromley Synagogue, North Western Reform Synagogue (Alyth) and
Dorset Gardens Methodist Church in Brighton, with a fourth event due to take place in Finchley. Each event
is jointly hosted by a church-synagogue partnership.
Board of Deputies Chief Executive Gillian Merron attended the event in Catford and Bromley.
ACTIVITY REPORT
INTERNATIONAL
President Marie van der Zyl, Public Affairs Director Phil Rosenberg and International Relations Officer
Talia Ingleby met the Jordanian Ambassador, His Excellency Omar Nahar, to discuss peace, security,
religious freedom and interfaith relations. See a photo here
Senior Vice President Sheila Gewolb and International Relations Officer Talia Ingleby attended the
signing ceremony of the landmark 30-member Arab Council for Regional Integration, which called for more
direct relations with Israelis and repudiating those calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. Read the Jewish
News report here
Chief Executive Gillian Merron met Jon Benjamin, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director of
Learning, Principal of the Diplomatic Academy.
Public Affairs Director Phil Rosenberg and International Relations Officer Talia Ingleby met with Fahad
A. Al Binali and Hasan Moosa Shafaei from the Embassy of Bahrain, to talk about promoting peace and
security in the Middle East, and celebrating Jewish heritage in the Arab world.
International Relations officer Talia Ingleby met Christina Jones and Alexis David from the Israeli
Embassy to discuss grassroots support for Israel, and community engagement.
International Relations officer Talia Ingleby spoke with Dalia Grinfeld from the ADL to discuss areas of
cooperation and the challenges of combatting antisemitism and other forms of racism in Europe and North
America.
International Relations officer Talia Ingleby spoke with András Ligeti from the World Jewish Congress to
discuss continued collaboration between the organisations.
COMMUNITY
Education Policy and Youth Engagement Officer Jake Berger met the chairs of the Civil Service Jewish
Network (JNet) to discuss their programme of upcoming events. JNet is sponsored by the Board of
Deputies.
Chief Executive Gillian Merron attended the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in Westminster. Israeli
Ambassador Mark Regev was among the speakers. See a photo here.

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
Education Policy and Youth Engagement Officer Jake Berger met with the Mazkir of Noam Masorti
Youth Yoni Stone to discuss youth engagement.
COMMEMORATIONs
Vice President Sheila Gewolb attended the AJEX commemoration event at St John’s Wood United
Synagogue where she represented the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London. Guests included ex-Chief Rabbi
Lord Sacks, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Ruth Bush, members of Westminster Council, and
several Deputies.
Chief Executive Gillian Merron attended the annual Kristallnacht commemoration at Belsize Square
Synagogue, organised by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR). Speakers were Eli Abt, who came to
England on a Kindertransport from Berlin, and Clare Weissenberg from the Kitchener Descendants Group.
The service was led by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg.
EVENTS
Chief Executive Gillian Merron attended a Chelsea FC 'Say No To Antisemitism' event held at the Imperial
War Museum in London.
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