Tag Archives: Jewish Community

seven modest proposals for the british jewish community

the ferocious but charming miriam shaviv over at the jc is blogging a number of “daily proposals to transform the british jewish community” during march. i was discussing this with my redoubtable other half over friday night dinner and we thought the following might be worth submission:

1. transparency at the jewish leadership council

ok, we know who the board of deputies are. we know what it’s for. we know how it’s funded. we know how you get to be on it. we know who it represents. now, we have this new organisation called the “jewish leadership council”. on it, you have various movers and shakers, you’ve got the vc/banking/property tycoons, you’ve got the charity/safety/israel activists, you’ve got synagogue movement machers, you’ve got access, you’ve got international connections, you’ve got lords, baronesses, knights and the chair of ujs – you’ve got two women and no rabbis, for some reason. you’ve got no haredim, for some other reason. you’ve got leaders from the most broad-based and influential organisations in the community – but what are they for? clearly, this is an influential bunch of people, but who chooses them? who decided that there should be a jewish leadership council in the first place? how are they accountable? what is their strategy? what is their relationship with the board? how is it funded? i for one would like to know.

Posted in Activism, Antisemitism, Democracy, Education, Entryism, Environmental, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Extremism, Misc, Obscurantism, Politics | Also tagged | 6 Responses

you’d better watch out, you’d better beware… netanyahu’s coming to town!

the jewish chronicle has asked prominent british jews – i would say, in fact, representatives of most streams of opinion – what they would say  if they had a chance to speak to everyone’s favourite prime minister when he arrives in the UK at the end of the month. you’ll find the variety of opinions on display quite interesting considering who they’ve chosen to ask. there are many different party lines here; one can hardly say that british jewry speaks with one voice. on the whole i think that’s probably a good thing, because if it did, it would probably be the voice of vanessa feltz, whose views, i would say, are alarmingly representative of your average community member.  also interesting is the evidence that uri geller has equally good political judgement as he does socially.

Posted in Interfaith, International Affairs, Israel/Palestine | Tagged | 1 Response
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