Chief Rabbi has ‘grave concerns’ over Labour
Jewish leaders criticise ‘insult’ of Labour leader who attended evening hosted by anti-israel group
The Chief Rabbi is considering intervening in the row over accusations of anti-semitism in Labour. Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, said: “It’s fair to say he has grave concerns.” Jeremy Corbyn faced criticism for attending a Passover event held by an anti-israel group.
THE Chief Rabbi has “grave concerns” about Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of anti-semitism, Jewish leaders said yesterday, after it emerged the Labour leader attended a Passover event hosted by an anti-israel group.
The Labour leader faced criticism from Jewish leaders and his own MPS after attending a Seder hosted by Jewdas, a fringe group that has dismissed the party’s anti-semitism scandal as a “bout of faux outrage”.
The group has described Israel as a “steaming pile of sewage which needs to be properly disposed of ” and accused the Jewish leaders who organised a protest in Parliament Square last week of “playing a dangerous game”.
During the meal songs made light of the way in which Jews commemorate the holocaust at Seders, including the lyrics: “The sweet and the bitter!/ Remember that we suffered/ Streisland and Hitler!/ Remember that we suffered”. Other lyrics included “f---the police”, “f--- the Tories” and “f--- the armies”.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, is now considering making an intervention over the next fortnight amid mounting concern about anti-semitism in the Labour Party.
Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies, accused the Labour leader of attempting to “provoke” the mainstream Jewish community.
He said: “It’s fair to say he [the Chief Rabbi] has grave concerns. The Chief Rabbi is very worried, he absolutely shares our concerns.
“This [the Jewdas Seder] was an event at which hostility was expressed to the mainstream Jewish community. Right now the message I am getting is that I can’t take seriously anything he [Jeremy Corbyn] says.”
Despite the criticism Mr Corbyn yesterday risked worsening tensions by saying that he had “learned a lot” at the Seder and suggesting that was a “good thing”.
Mr Corbyn said the event was “very interesting”, telling the BBC: “I celebrated it with a lot of young Jewish people from my own community and my own constituency.
“Anti-semitism is a vile and evil thing within our society at any level, anywhere, anytime and it has got to be eradicated wherever it arises.”
Jewdas has said the anti-semitism row was “the work of cynical manipulations by people whose express loyalty is to the Conservative Party and the right wing of the Labour Party”.
Lord Winston, the fertility expert and Labour peer, said in a letter to The Telegraph that Mr Corbyn had made “a humiliating insult to virtually the entire Jewish community” by attending the Seder.
It follows Mr Corbyn’s apology last week after he defended an anti-semitic mural, claiming it should not be removed.
He also deleted his personal Facebook page over the weekend after it emerged he was a member of several groups in which supporters posted anti-semitic messages. Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum and a key ally of Mr Corbyn, suggested that the Labour leader and other senior figures should attend training courses on antisemitism to tackle “unconscious bias”.
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said he attended the Seder in a personal capacity, and not in his role as Labour leader. His office had been unaware that he was attending the event.
The Guido Fawkes website published leaked audio recordings from the event on Monday evening, claiming that Mr Corbyn stayed for several hours.
Jonathan Goldstein, the chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the JLC had “no issue with Jewdas and Jewdas having the opinions that it does”.
Jewdas insists it is committed to tackling the “pervasive anti-semitism” that remains on the Left.