Pro-Corbyn Charedim to protest against Board

A GROUP of Charedi activists will demonstrate outside the Board of Deputies’ annual fundraising dinner in November to claim that the leadership body does not speak on behalf of all strictly Orthodox Jews.

It follows a letter defending Jeremy Corbyn, signed by 34 leading Charedi rabbis and circulated in the strictly Orthodox communities of North London, that condemned bodies such as the Board for being so stridently critical of Labour over its antisemitism crisis.

One of the men who drafted that letter, 33-year-old Shraga Stern, wrote to the Board after Yom Kippur to notify it of the planned demonstration.

The Charedi protest will primarily object to the notion that the Board represents London’s Charedi community of approximately 50,000 — the largest strictly Orthodox community in Europe.

Mr Stern wrote: “We will be holding a protest from Charedi Jews outside the dinner to voice that BoD does not represent 50, 000 Charedi Jews. Please can you give me the full address of the dinner?

“Please be assured that it will be a peaceful protest and I’m more than happy to meet you so we can work together on making sure that it all runs well.”

The Board responded by condemning “divide and rule” tactics of a “small group of malcontents”.

The spokesman added: “The Charedi community has had no better ally than the Board of Deputies in standing up for their rights in the fields of coroner reform, education and welfare, and that is appreciated by most leaders in the Charedi community. They should be protesting against antisemitism, not against attempts to fight it.”

The original pro-Corbyn letter signed by the Charedi rabbis, which railed against “those who are spreading reports that the Jews in Britain are united against” the Labour leader, caused a rift in the Charedi community, with some arguing that the rabbis were misled as to its content.

Mr Stern and Naftali Friedman, who co-wrote the letter, denied this, insisting that some of the rabbis even made their own amendments. A number of rabbis later confirmed to the JC they had read and signed it.

Last week, the pair also accused the Board and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) of “chutzpah”, saying they “only represent a very particular part of Jews who are pro-Israel”.

The Board announced earlier this month that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, will be the guest of honour at its 2018 dinner, on November 5.

They should be protesting against antisemitism