Mayor Khan to speak at Board annual dinner
THE BOARD of Deputies has announced Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, as the guest of honour for its annual dinner, with the Board’s president expressing “delight” at his acceptance.
Marie Van der Zyl said that the organisation “can think of no-one better to address the community’s hopes and concerns, at this challenging time for our community.
“Sadiq has been very supportive of our community, speaking out on Labour’s antisemitism crisis and calling for the proscription of Hezbollah. Nobody will forget that Sadiq’s very first engagement as Mayor
[in 2016] was to attend the community’s Yom Hashoah commemoration.”
As Labour’s most
Sadiq Khan senior politician in elected office, Mr Khan has played an active role in interfaith events with the Jewish community, and has spoken publicly on a number of occasions about his concern at the antisemitism within his own party, saying that it was “not doing enough” to address the problem, and that it was “depressing, saddening and completely unacceptable”.
When last month the Evening Standard published an editorial accusing the Mayor of not speaking up on the issue of antisemitism within his own party, a number of prominent Jews criticised the accusation as erroneous.
The Board’s dinner will be held on Monday November 5. Previous guests of honour include Ruth Davidson, David Miliband, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Theresa May, when she was Home Secretary.