IsLimmudtoolateforLansman?
THERE WILL be a distinctly political feel to Limmud conference later this month.
Among the admittedly impressive roster of Westminsterbased speakers is Jon Lansman, the founder of the hard-left Momentum activism group which helped propel Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour leadership last year.
Other leading political Jews due on programme include Lord Glasman, architect of the Blue Labour philosophy, and Sarah Sackman, Jewish Labour Movement vice-chair. Luciana Berger, Labour’s former Shadow Mental Health Minister, will run three sessions.
But the most eyebrow-raising of them all is Mr Lansman. Repeatedly this year, he has been called on to deny that Momentum supporters have engaged in antisemitic activity. It has been hard to argue with the evidence, though. For example, Momentum activists in Liverpool have tried to unseat Louise Ellman after using meetings to compare Israel to the Nazis.
And who could forget a Momentum activist baiting Ruth Smeeth, another female Jewish Labour MP, with antisemitic remarks that prompted her to flee in tears from an event at which Mr Corbyn was speaking in June?
Perhaps Mr Lansman will use his appearance to explain why last Saturday, at his group’s national committee meeting, Jackie Walker was handed a new role?
Ms Walker, who is suspended from Labour over antisemitism allegations, is still being investigated by the party, but this was no bar to her being elected to help arrange Momentum’s conference.
Far be it from me to intrude on private grief, but Mr Lansman and his colleagues find themselves enduring difficult times. One member wrote this week of her disquiet as a “vocal, disruptive and overbearing minority” of “Trotskyists” brought a “sectarian attitude” to the group, which is splintering into warring factions.
It is said that in some Momentum branches, Mr Lansman is “demonised, vilified and dehumanised”. In others he enjoys God-like status.
Hatred of Israel appears to be a major recruiting tool for some Momentumites. So maybe it’s no wonder the crosshairs are being turned on the group’s chairman, who in January told my colleague Rosa Doherty his political beliefs had been enlivened by the “radicalism” of life on a kibbutz.
Mr Lansman has previously outlined his regret that Labour’s antisemitism crisis was not tackled sooner. Perhaps the Limmud appearance is part of his effort to put things right. But he might find the impending implosion of his own group means his first serious endeavour to build bridges with the community will also be the last. You might imagine that after 18 months of disastrous headlines about Jew-hatred, Mr Corbyn’s advisers would have used his visit to Theresienstadt for an interview with the Jewish press. It was the perfect opportunity to mend the rift.
But no. The momentcameand went with just one tweet from Mr Corbyn. This is how the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition does business now.