Signatories deceived over pro-Corbyn letter
AT LEAST half of the 12 signatories to a letter published by the Sunday Times last weekend that strongly defended Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour against the charge of antisemitism had no idea about its final wording, the JC has learned.
The letter, which is linked to Charedi activist Shraga Stern, claimed to have gained the approval of all the signatories — whom the letter called “British Holocaust Survivors.”
It said that the “real current threat to Jewish life in the UK” was not Labour but the “anti-religious education policies being relentlessly pursued by Ofsted”. Stamford Hill activist Mr Stern has aggressively opposed changes to government policy on the teaching of LGBT issues in schools in recent months — while also building up an alliance with the Labour leader over their joint support for anti-Zionism.
But following the letter’s publication on Sunday, which said Mr Corbyn has “bent over backwards to help Jewish people”, the JC has established that some signatories were not shown its full text in advance.
At least one of those who was named as a signatory signed after being told only that the letter that would affect “the very future of the Jewish people in this country”.
Another signatory, Hyman Bindinger, 81, from Tyne and Wear, said he had been approached at a wedding and asked for his signature on a letter he did “not understand”.
Mr Bindinger added: “I made a mistake. He showed me that other people signed and I thought ‘I will sign it’… I do not understand what it’s about. I hardly know who Corbyn is.”
Among those who signed the letter was Hungarian-born Avigdor Langberg, who founded Kay’s Supermarket on Golders Green Road.
When the JC spoke with a member of Mr Langberg’s family, they said the issue was a “very painful one” to discuss and insisted they would not want the family to be associated with support for Mr Corbyn.
Another of the signatories spoke to a leading figure in the Stamford Hill Charedi community on Monday about their distress at having learned about the wording of the letter only after it was published.
The signatory said they had been asked to sign the letter by a known associate of Mr Stern and was told that their signature was required for a letter protecting the “very future of the Jewish people.”
Sources have also told the JC that at least two of the signatories on the letter are very elderly and unlikely to have been able to read the text they had signed in full.
The JC can also reveal that the Sunday Times cut a paragraph from the letter that said, “in terms of Holocaust history” the Board of Deputies “frustrated and hindered rescue efforts” during the Second World War. The paper edited this from the published version of the letter, apparently amid concern about the strength of the claim.
Mr Stern sparked further controversy after sending an email on Saturday evening to “Dear Kapo Pinter” — addressing Rabbi Avraham Pinter, chairman of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregation’s (UOHC) external affairs committee.
The pair have disagreed repeatedly over recent months over the community’s responses to changes to government education policy
“Kapo” was a term for Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who were assigned by SS guards to supervise forced labour.
“Why are the Christians not aware of your deal with the DfE [Department for Education]? I just need that reassurance once more,” Mr Stern wrote in his email, which urged people to lobby their MPs to vote against draft regulations on relationships and sex education. “Never argue with a liar. You can’t win because they believe their own lies.” Mr Stern’s email sparked outrage amongst many in the Stamford Hill community. One senior Jewish communal figure told the JC they had sent an angry email to Mr Stern.
In a follow-up email sent on Monday, Mr Stern did not apologise. He wrote: “I have been accused of employing harsh and even offensive language. Whilst I would normally lose no time in apologising for the use of offensive (even if clearly ironic) language, I need to point out that the right to give offence is integral to the right of freedom of expression. “Throughout this campaign against the RSE regulations I have been openly vilified, denounced and denigrated, and my reputation unashamedly besmirched.
“In this particular case I decided to hit back. As a parent my intention was to defend myself as a victim being abused by another victim, which is — tragically — precisely what happened during the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. “Be that as it may, the issues at stake here are too important to be sidetracked by the crocodile tears of those who do not like the truth.”
Rabbi Pinter declined to comment when contacted by the JC. The JC approached Mr Stern for comment. Geoffrey Alderman, who works as an advisor for Mr Stern, said: “I played no part in the collection of
I hardly know who Jeremy Corbyn is ’ I have been accused of employing offensive language’
signatures.”
In January, Mr Stern was pictured with Jeremy Corbyn at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Westminster. Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, backed the teaching of LGBT issues this week in the House of Commons.