Britain’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week did not prevent Prime Minister Gordon Brown sending the Jewish community a cheerful message of goodwill for Pesach.

Mr Brown sent a personal letter to wish the community “best wishes for a Pesach Sameach”, signed in his trademark black felt tip.

The letter reads: “This Pesach families will gather, just as they have for centuries, to eat around seder tables and read the Haggadah. The story they will tell is of course unique to the Jewish community – but it is one with lessons for us all.

“The festival commemorates not only the liberation of a people, but the power of faith. Throughout their enslavement the Jewish people never stopped believing in a better future.

“Hope gave them resilience, and their survival gave the modern world a religion of great wisdom, insight and compassion. And so Pesach is a festival we all have reason to celebrate.”