Controversial Israeli writer Tuvia Tenenbom launched a 10-minute tirade against Labour peer Lord Mendelsohn during an address to Finchley Synagogue on Shabbat.
Mr Tenenbom, who was disinvited from a Limmud panel last December, accused Lord Mendelsohn through his association with the New Israel Fund of being a self-hating Jew, comparable to the Jews who collaborated with the Nazis and helped fund the rise of Adolf Hitler.
The Israeli-born writer had been invited to speak to the community about his book, ‘Catch the Jew!’
Lord Mendelsohn said of the incident: “I read Mr Tenenbom’s book, which addressed some well-known issues with the style you would expect of a strident polemic. What his verbal assault showed was that it was written by someone with a hate-filled, ugly and deeply prejudiced political personality. On balance it is probably better for him to stick to writing.”
He added: “It wasn’t what I had expected to happen between adon olam and a herring at Kiddush”.
Lord Mendelsohn is the President of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, Co-President of Norwood and a former Chairman of Kinloss Community Centre and Finchley Synagogue. He is a former member of the board of trustees of the New Israel Fund in Britain.
This replaces an earlier version of the story.
In response, Mr Tenenbom said:
"The depiction of the event at the synagogue lacks
content. During my speech I gave numerous examples of findings made
by New Israel Fund to various anti-Israel groups and people and
I argued that by doing so the NIF has positioned itself as an organization made
up of sworn, self-hating Jews, who deliberately undermine Israel’s cause by
spreading unsubstantiated propaganda against Israel and her Jewish supporters
in the Diaspora. To this, Lord Mendelsohn told me that I had reminded him he
had not yet made his annual contribution to the NIF, but that now – thanks to
me - he will increase it.
"In reply, I said that his reaction to my comments about the
New Israel Fund was itself an example of the Jewish self-hatred that I write
about in my book, Catch the Jew! For him to brag about donating more to the
NIF, and this after I had pointed out the rabid self-hate
causes it supports with endless flow of cash, was nothing short than a living
proof to the uncritical, irrational, fundamentalist worldview that people like
this Lord suffer from."
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