Chief’s refugee concern

THE CHIEF Rabbi’s office has raised concerns with the Home Office over the government’s U-turn on a commitment to settle 3,000 Syrian child refugees in the UK.

The JC understands Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’s office has contacted Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, about the decision to admit only an additional 150 lone children to Britain, bringing the total to 350.

Rabbi Mirvis, who has been a vocal supporter of refugees, warned that closing borders “would not make sense” after a visit to a Greek refugee camp in 2015.

Meanwhile, 58 rabbis from across the community have signed a letter to Ms Rudd urging the government to reinstate the proposal from Jewish peer Lord Dubs to welcome 3,000 young refugees.

“Alf Dubs was saved, along with thousands of Jewish children, only because of the compassion shown by Britain in the 1930s,” the rabbis wrote.

“Today we should extend this compassion to those who face peril of a different kind.”

Signatories to the letter, sent under the auspices of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, included Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism; Rabbi David Mason from Muswell Hill Synagogue; Rabbi Richard Jacobi, co-chair of the Rabbinic Conference of Liberal Judaism; and Rabbi Josh Levy, chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis.