Kehillah’s Letter to the Board of Deputies

Dear Mr Rosenberg, Mr Wegier and The Board of Deputies,

Over the last year, our community, Kehillah North London Synagogue, has been approached on several occasions to join the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

At Kehillah, we are an incredibly diverse community in every sense of the word. We value differences of opinion. We value debate. We value the Jewish tradition of using Torah and text study to argue with each other constructively to find meaning in this world.

We have been told that our presence on the Board, with all our diverse views and opinions, would be welcome; that the Board is a body representing the entire Anglo-Jewish community.  However, the recent suspension of 36 Deputies due to their statement about ethical concerns over Israel’s war in Gaza raises concerns for us.

What was printed in the FT was clearly the opinion of the 36, although we can understand that some readers might not have understood this and the signatories could have made this clearer. However, they felt a moral imperative to get their message across and their choice of medium suggests they felt they were not given an alternative mechanism of expression. We question whether the Board can truly call itself the voice of Anglo-Jewry if it is an organisation that curtails the freedom of speech of its representatives. After all, what could be more Jewish than the imperative to speak when one sees injustice in the world?

By suspending over 10% of the total Deputies, those who voiced an opinion that differed from their fellow Deputies (and now effectively expelling five of them) you have confirmed to us that you are not truly representative of a large proportion of Anglo-Jewry.

We urge you to reconsider your decision to punish your fellow deputies for speaking out. They did not do so for personal gain or political power, but because they felt a moral duty to respond.

We note your recent statement condemning the use of starvation as an act of war. Your comments suggest that, in some respects, you agree with some of what the Deputies said in their letter.

Many of our members at Kehillah would agree with absolutely everything the 36 wrote. Some of our members would disagree and some would have wished they had gone further. We ask the Board to reconsider their decision about punishment and ask themselves how the Board can truly represent the breadth of Anglo-Jewish thought and feeling in the wider Jewish Community so that future Deputies will not have to resort to these sorts of actions.

We ask the Board to show leadership at a time when we are all suffering with the pain of loss, the fear of continued war in the region and the despair of watching innocent people starved and killed. 

Reinstate the 36 in full.

Yours respectfully,

Holly Kal-Weiss and Imogen Resnick, co-chairs, on behalf of Kehillah North London