UK
Board calls for LBC’s James O’Brien to be taken off air over ‘Shabbat school’ clip
Presenter apologises after reading an email from a listener who alleged his Jewish wife had been taught anti-Arab propaganda
July 23, 2025 11:04
Presenter apologises after reading an email from a listener who alleged his Jewish wife had been taught anti-Arab propaganda
July 23, 2025 11:04The Board of Deputies has called for LBC presenter James O’Brien to be taken off air after he read out an email from a listener who claimed his Jewish wife had been taught anti-Arab propaganda at “Shabbat school.”
During his show today, O’Brien apologised for the “unsubstantiated claims”.
On Tuesday morning, O’Brien – who hosts the station’s weekday mid-morning phone-in show, attracting 1.4 million weekly listeners – introduced the controversial message by saying: “I am fascinated by objectivity, which is why I’m going to read out this from Chris, because you do find yourself wondering how people can be looking at the same world you’re looking at and arriving at such completely different conclusions.”
He cited polling from Haaretz, which he said showed Israelis “displaying support not just for ethnic cleansing, but also for genocide, on levels that many of us would find terrifying”.
He then read out an email from a listener in Oxford identified as “Chris”, who said such “warped views” were “not just an Israeli problem.”
In the email, “Chris” wrote: “My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town, she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.”
“Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides – as Chris points out – then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty, and it does indeed start young. There is a danger perhaps that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda processes,” O’Brien added.
This is simply untrue. Every detail is wrong and the allegations are antisemitic. How can it have been aired? pic.twitter.com/y2vEdtmUUW
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) July 22, 2025
The Board of Deputies condemned the remarks.
In a statement on Tuesday, Andrew Gilbert, its vice president for security, resilience and cohesion, said: “LBC should apologise, and take Mr O’Brien off the air.”
The Board, he said, was “urgently seeking a meeting with senior executives following the completely unacceptable and highly offensive comments made by James O’Brien in his LBC show.
“Demonising the British Jewish community, at a time when antisemitism in this country is at terrifying high levels, must have clear consequences.”
The Jewish Leadership Council also criticised LBC and O’Brein for their handling of the segment.
O’Brien’s reading of the claim on his show “is irresponsible and dangerous journalism,” the council said, adding: “At a time of heightened antisemitism when synagogues and Jewish schools require increased security, the threat created by such unsubstantiated claims is real.”
“LBC must urgently investigate and explain how this was allowed to be read out by their presenter,” the JLC said in a statement.
And Independent peer and JC director Lord Ian Austin questioned why O’Brien was back on air the next morning. “There’s been no apology, no explanation, nothing at all as far as I can see yet,” he posted on X, urging LBC to “sort this out now”.
On Tuesday, Austin described the comments on O’Brien’s show as “appalling” and “completely unacceptable”.
“I’m sure they’d be taking the presenter off air if racist nonsense was read out about any other minority,” he wrote.
Twenty-four hours after the controversial segment, O’Brien apologised.
During his show on Wednesday morning, he said: "The message has understandably upset a lot of people and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value. I am genuinely sorry for that.”
The JC has approached LBC for comment.
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