By Steve Winston, Managing Director, National Jewish Assembly
There is no shortage of people willing to sign their names to morally unserious causes. There is, however, something particularly grotesque about 36 elected Deputies of the Board of Deputies of British Jews using their position not to speak for their community, but to attack it.
Published on April 16 in the Financial Times, their letter condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza was not just misleading – it was a textbook case of political vanity masquerading as moral courage. More to the point, it is yet another dreary example of fringe left-wing activists coopting Jewish identity to get a cheap hit of moral attention by turning on the world’s only Jewish state.
They claim the letter was written from a place of “Jewish values.” It is nothing of the sort. It is an exercise in moral posturing that insults the intelligence of the public and the integrity of the Jewish tradition. It is not Torah they are channeling, but Twitter. The values on display are not Jewish, but ideological – rooted not in faith, but in a fashionably radical politics that routinely casts Israel as the villain and ignores the genocidal hatred of her enemies.
It is telling that many of the signatories are affiliated with groups such as Na’amod and Yachad. Some were part of the now-infamous “Kaddish for Gaza” spectacle in 2018, where mourners wept publicly for dead Hamas operatives. Others have routinely aligned themselves with campaigns that seek to demonise, isolate, or pressure Israel. Their views are not representative of mainstream British Jewry. They never have been. And despite the faux-outrage this week, they are still very much the fringe.
The letter fails, first and foremost, because it lacks honesty. It refers to “mass civilian casualties” and a “humanitarian catastrophe” – serious matters, of course. But there is not a single condemnation of Hamas. Not one. No mention of the hostages still being held. No mention of the 7 October massacre that precipitated this war. No mention of the deliberate embedding of Hamas weapons in hospitals and schools.
And this is the real danger: when people use Jewishness as a costume to legitimise anti-Israel narratives, they not only mislead the public – they endanger the very community they claim to speak for. It is no coincidence that attacks on Jews in Britain have surged since October 7. What begins as “criticism of Israel” quickly metastasizes into something uglier and more dangerous when our own elected Deputies provide a moral permission slip.
Their letter speaks of “Jewish values” as though they were some abstract code of pacifism and surrender. But Jewish values are not what these Deputies think they are. Jewish values include the preservation of life, yes. But also the duty of self-defence. They include compassion – but also truth. They include peace – but never at the cost of justice, never at the price of enabling those who slaughter our people and parade it on social media.
Do the signatories believe that the thousands of young Israelis serving in the IDF right now – many of whom have paid the ultimate price – are devoid of Jewish values? That those risking their lives to prevent a second (and more) October 7 are morally inferior to the activists signing letters from the comfort of their living rooms?
There is nothing brave about this letter. There is nothing insightful about it. It will be celebrated by those who were always predisposed to hate Israel and despise Zionism. It will earn praise from people who do not understand, or care, what Jews actually believe. It is a betrayal dressed up as dissent.
The British Jewish community is not a monolith. But it is united in its understanding that Hamas is a genocidal death cult, and that Israel’s war is not just legitimate but necessary. The survival and security of the world’s only Jewish state is not a slogan. It is a moral imperative.
Let this be said clearly: this letter speaks for 36 individuals. It does not speak for the community. It does not speak for British Jews. And it certainly does not speak for Jewish values.
