‘Democracy wins’ as Board votes in Yachad
AFTER TWICE postponing a decision and weeks of intensive lobbying for and against, the Board of Deputies finally approved the membership application of Israel campaign group Yachad.
Even supporters of the group, which is strongly opposed to Israeli settlement on the West Bank, had doubted whether it would clinch the necessary two-third majority.
But following a largely even-tempered half-hour debate at the Board’s meeting on Sunday, deputies voted by 135 to 61 to allow it to join.
Yachad director Hannah Weisfeld said she was delighted at the result. But she noted that the campaign against the group’s membership had been“extremely aggressive and unpleasant”.
Vice-president Jonathan Arkush was the only one of the Board’s officers to vote against the application: three backed it, with treasurer Laurence Brass, an “unapologetic supporter” of Yachad, taking part in the debate.
In a statement after the meeting, the Board said: “We urge everyone to accept the decisive outcome of the democratic process. This vote is about inclusiveness and does not change the Board’s attitude to Israel.”
Mr Arkush told the JC that while the vote had been a victory for the Board’s democracy, he had opposed the application because, “I deplore Yachad’s constant criticism of Israel. In my view, it is inappropriate to criticise publicly the policies of the government of Israel from the safety and security of London”.
Most of the speakers backed the Yachad bid, although stressing that they were doing so in the interests of democracy while disagreeing with the group’s views.
Highgate United Synagogue deputy Adrian Cohen, who chairs Labour Friends of Israel, said that at times he had been a “vocal critic” of the group.
But if its application were rejected, he warned, there was a “danger that the Board will be seen, particularly by the youth and students of our community, as reactionary, intolerant and frightened of open and free debate”.
Jonathan Hoffman, of Woodside Park Synagogue , who was opposed, accused Yachad of being “committed to undermining support for Israel”.
But Union of Jewish Students president Ella Rose, who spoke in support, said that the debate was “about our community’s lack of confidence to deal with difficult issues and to discuss the Israel Palestine conflict”.
So large was the attendance, a record in recent years, that the organisers struggled to provide enough voting cards.
Although there were claims that some deputies had voted twice, no one was prepared to make them in public when invited to come forward by president Vivian Wineman. In the event, 196 votes were cast by 204 deputies at the meeting who were eligible to vote, with some abstentions.
Deputies also applauded two representatives of Stamford Hill’s Charedi community, Efrayim Goldstein and Levi Schapiro, who attended for the first time as observers.