Chief executive’s comments revealed after independent appeal panel finds ‘inadvertent error’ in investigation process into sanctioned deputies
July 31, 2025 16:09
The Board of Deputies was threatened by United Synagogue shuls over the letter signed by 36 deputies in the Financial Times denouncing the continuation of the war in Gaza.
Of the 36 signatories, all of whom represented Progressive communities, five were suspended for their part in the letter’s distribution and the remaining 31 were sent a notice of criticism.
Announcing the sanctions, the Board said the decision had been made because the deputies had given the “misleading impression” that their April letter reflected the official position of the Board as a whole – and not because of the opinions voiced in the letter.
Now, an independent investigation into the sanctions has found an “inadvertent error” in the Board’s initial investigation process. The panel said the 36 deputies were not given the full set of materials used in an investigation into their actions.
Signatories were only provided with around 10 of the 40 complaints that were used by the panel to reach their judgment. They were also not shown the impact statement written by Board’s chief executive, Michael Wegier.
In this statement, which was leaked to the JC, Wegier outlined how the Board had come under financial pressure to severely punish the letter signatories.
He said members of the United Synagogue had threatened to withhold their financial contributions to the Board if the letter signatories were not punished “severely”. Days after the letter was published, 90 representatives of the US – the Board’s largest stakeholder – questioned president Phil Rosenberg over the letter.
Wegier’s impact statement reads: “We had received both directly and via the US leadership that synagogues were threatening to leave the BoD and that many individuals would withhold the communal contribution as a response either to ‘our letter’ and more significantly to any perceived weakness we may show in not punishing the 36 severely.
“The fact that no US deputies signed the letter added to the communal tension and cultivated a false impression that progressive = left and Orthodox = right.”
His statement did not claim that US leadership had in any way threatened the Board.
Wegier, who has led the communal body since 2021, also suggested that one organisation – whose name has been redacted – decided “on the back of the FT letter not to affiliate” with the Board. Wegier said this was “a major disappointment after the work that we had put in to travel around the country, making the case for the [Board]”.
It will be “another year” before that organisation’s decision can be reviewed, Wegier added.
He also referred to messages from “dozens” of people online who informed the Board that they would “be withholding the CC [communal contribution] and recommending that to their communities”.
Elsewhere in his impact statement, the chief executive said the FT letter had been a “major distraction that undermined the organisation and the community in front of key stakeholders, getting in the way of us advancing the consensus positions of the community”.
He claimed “parts” of the letter had been “embarrassing” for the Board, including that it “contains no reference to Hamas whatsoever, which is a shocking oversight”.
He added that if a “similar style letter” had been written by “right-wing” deputies, the Board would have had “exactly the same objection”.
“Media outlets that have taken a very hostile line to Israel and the mainstream Jewish community have seized on this division”, Wegier went on, “to drive forward this agenda to the common detriment of the community.”
Wegier said it was only the “right of the leadership to speak in the Board’s name” and the letter had, in effect, put the Board “on trial”.
He added that the Board’s president, Phil Rosenberg, had “felt compelled to fill many of his rare free Shabbats with visits to concerned communities despite the physical and emotional exhaustion the whole episode had on him”.
According to Wegier, Rosenberg “faced a particularly harsh grilling” at St John’s Wood United Synagogue. “I do not think the community has any idea of the level of pressure on a BoD President (and family), even in regular times, and this episode increased that pressure to a huge degree,” the chief executive said.
Those facing sanctions were given 14 days from the release of the additional material, including Wegier’s statement and the full suite of complaints, to comment.
It is understood that there were no specific complaints about the five suspended deputies. The panel decided to give these deputies the toughest sanctions for what they said was a breach of the Board’s code of conduct.
The independent review panel will now address any new material – including any statements from the 36 deputies – before coming to a decision about whether to uphold or amend the sanctions.
A spokesperson from the Board of Deputies told the JC: “We will not comment as the appeals process is still ongoing.”
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