Outrage as Board leader candidate is called ‘far right’
AN INTERNAL briefing paper for the Reform movement that labelled various members of the Board of Deputies “far right” has been dismissed as an attempt to “score petty political points”.
The memo, by deputy Andrew Gilbert, suggested that a “far-right-wing caucus” existed inside the organisation.
Among the views labelled “far-right” were that it was “not the Board’s place to have any position on internal Israeli matters”; that boycotts of Israel were “antisemitic”; and that the Board of Deputies should display “zero tolerance for any expression of antisemitism”.
Speaking to the JC, presidential candidate Jonathan Neumann said that Mr Gilbert’s memo was “just the latest and crudest effort to denigrate opponents and resist much-needed change at the Board of Deputies”.
He added:
“By using a phrase that should be reserved for our community’s adversaries to score petty political points, those behind the memo undermine the very real battle against the very real far-right.”
A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said:
“It should go without saying that the ‘far right’ label should be reserved for our community’s adversaries who actually fit the description.
“Cheapening the phrase by using it for fleeting sectarian advantage hinders the fight against antisemitism and shows an alarming level of ignorance or recklessness.”
But Mr Gilbert stood firm, insisting that the caucus had a history of members “with very right-wing connections”.
“This was me and one of the leaders of our own deputies group giving the leadership of our movement a briefing of what’s going on,” he said.
Mr Gilbert’s memo also criticised a 2018 book by Mr Neumann, To Heal the World?: How The Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel.
In it, the charity lawyer argued that progressive Jews wrongly appropriated the concept of tikkun olam to justify their own political positions.