An internal briefing paper for the Reform movement which labelled a group of deputies opposing incumbent president Marie van Der Zyl as "far-right" has been described by presidential candidate Jonathan Neumann as “just the latest and crudest effort to denigrate opponents and resist much-needed change at the Board of Deputies.”
The memo by deputy Andrew Gilbert cites what it describes as the manifesto of a ‘far right wing caucus’, which is said to include the view that it is “not the Board’s place to have any position on internal Israeli matters”, that boycotts of Israel and BDS are “antisemitic” and that the Board of Deputies should display “zero tolerance for any expression of antisemitism”.
Mr Gilbert’s memo also refers to a 2018 book by Mr Neumann, To Heal the World?: How The Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers. In it, the charity lawyer argues that the concept of tikkun olam has been taken over by the Jewish left.
Speaking to the JC, Mr Neumann said Mr Gilbert’s memo was “just the latest and crudest effort to denigrate opponents and resist much-needed change at the Board of Deputies.”
He continued: “By using a phrase that should be reserved for our community's adversaries to score petty political points, those behind the memo undermine the very real battle against the very real far-right. Worse, they insult the majority of the Jewish community that believes in zero-tolerance of antisemitism and unflinching opposition to the movement to boycott Israel – the core of the policy agenda ludicrously described in the memo as being ‘far-right.’”
But Mr Gilbert said the caucus had a history of members “with very right wing connections” and insisted there was “nothing in that document that I’ve got any issues with at all.
“This was me and one of the leaders of our own deputies group giving the leadership of our movement a briefing of what’s going on. Most of it is us turning out, explaining how you run elections, what’s coming when,” he said.
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