Five Progressive rabbis – including the principal of Leo Baeck College in London – have resigned from the Unite union in protest at what they describe as general secretary Len McCluskey’s “disingenuous threat” to the Jewish community.
In a letter to Andrew Murray, Unite’s chief of staff, the five rabbis - who include West London Synagogue’s Rabbi David Mitchell and Leo Baeck College’s Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris – confirm that they have terminated their membership of the Faith Workers’ Branch of Unite suggesting they can “no longer remain members of a trade union which has lost control of its leadership.”
The letter – which is also signed by Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi, of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue, Rabbi Richard Jacobi of East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue and Rabbi Monique Mayer of the Bristol & West Progressive Jewish Congregation – details what is described as Mr McCluskey’s transition from “his position of denial to his acceptance of a genuine antisemitism problem within Labour” since he first described the issue as being one of “mood music” created by people seeking to undermine Jeremy Corbyn in September 2017.
But the rabbis note that the Unite leader’s acceptance of the problem has only emerged “in the context of a counter-attack against critics of Jeremy Corbyn.”
The letter then adds:” The weaponisation and counter-weaponisation of antisemitism are equally deplorable. This is a serious problem throughout the Labour Party, including its supporters, and cannot be downplayed.
“Len McCluskey’s most recent comments about the leadership of the Jewish community are not only unhelpful, but are disingenuous, for in so doing he attempts to rewrite the story of the last 6-months and plays down the genuine concerns of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community, as expressed by our leadership.
“Moreover, his line: “before the political estrangement between them and the Labour Party becomes entrenched”, feels a little too much like a threat and does nothing to calm the anxieties we keep hearing from our congregants and across the Jewish community.
“In light of the above, we rabbis, many of whom signed the joint letter by the 68 rabbis on antisemitism, can no longer remain members of a trade union which has lost control of its leadership, for when a leader writes: “I am a leader and I answer to those I represent”, we realise that he no longer means us.
“Therefore, with regret, we must join with our rabbinic colleagues who have already terminated their membership of Unite. “
In a July letter co-ordinated by the Jewish Labour Movement, 68 British rabbis from across the denominational spectrum, signed a letter urging Labour “to listen to the Jewish community" and adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
Earlier this week it emerged that Unite had threatened social media users that it is seeking “legal advice” in relation to the accusation that its general secretary is “an antisemite and a racist”, which it has called "defamatory".
