Momentum, the organisation set up to campaign for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is “just so Jewish”, a leading member of the left-wing group has claimed.
Rhea Wolfson – who is also a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee – revealed she had discussed the likely reaction to her joining Momentum and being Jewish with the group’s founder Jon Lansman.
As a rising member of the Labour Party in Scotland, Ms Wolfson said she was contacted by Mr Lansman over taking on a senior role in Momentum.
She said: “The first time I spoke to Jon Lansman he warned me this would be hard.
“People would ask questions, people would be personal and everything surrounding Ken Livingstone would make it worse.”
Ms Wolfson said Mr Lansman told her that he regularly faced challenges around the Shabbat table over his left-wing politics.
She added: “One of the funniest things about Momentum is it’s just so Jewish.”
Her comments came to light in a profile of the Momentum group written by journalist Ben Judah in the FT Weekend newspaper.
The article also mentioned the Jewish backgrounds of other senior figures within the group including James Schneider and Adam Klug.
Journalist Mr Judah tells how his 19-year-old brother decided to leave Labour over its failure to tackle antisemitism.
Ms Wolfson, who narrowly failed to become Labour MP for Livingston at the last general election, told the FT: “It’s not good enough. This is a problem on the left.
“But I get fed up with old men yelling at me on Twitter about what to think about antisemitism.”
The article also reveals how Ms Wolfson was bombarded with antisemitic hate messages from the far-right Stormfront group on social media after she campaigned successfully for election to Labour’s NEC.
Momentum groups have repeatedly been at the centre of many of the antisemitism scandals to engulf Labour.
Joshua Garfield, a Momentum officer from Newham, East London, recently resigned after saying he feels “unsafe and untrusted” as a Jew among members of his local branch.
Luciana Berger and other Jewish Labour MPs have also found themselves being targeted by local Momentum activists calling for their deselection over claims that they are not left wing enough.
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