Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established in 1760 by a group of Sephardic Jews, the board presents itself as a forum for the views of most organisations within the British Jewish community, liaising with the British government on that basis. Notably, while Lord Rothschild was President of the Board of Deputies, the Balfour Declaration was addressed to him and eventually led to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. It is affiliated to the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress. The current president is Marie van der Zyl. She will be succeeded by Phil Rosenberg on 1 June 2024.[2]
History[edit]
The Board of Deputies of British Jews was established in London in 1760. Seven deputies were appointed by the elders of the Sephardi congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews to form a standing committee (Portuguese: deputados) founded to pay homage to George III on his accession to the throne.[3] The Ashkenazi Jewish congregation then followed suit, establishing a public affairs committee to address urgent political matters[4] and safeguard the interests of British Jews in the British Isles and the colonies.[5] The two bodies began to meet and united in the 1810s.[6] The joint organization was named the London Committee of Deputies of British Jews.
In the mid-19th century, the organisation was headed by Sir Moses Montefiore, the Sephardi lay leader of British Jewry, and Nathan Adler, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. The current name was adopted in 1913. In the course of its history, some of the major disputes were between Sephardi and Ashkenazi leaders and between religious and lay leaders.[7]
The Board became more prominent in British society in the early twentieth century due to its support of refugees, notably leading an ultimately failed campaign against the Aliens Act 1905. However, by the 1930s, the Board's position had shifted to a more assimilationist position in order to improve the perception of Jews among the non-Jewish British population, including adopting a position of non-Zionism.[8] In 1933, Neville Laski was elected as the Board's President, and called for Jews to give "overriding consideration of duty and loyalty" to the United Kingdom.[9] However, the stances of the Board once again had shifted in 1939 with the election as President of Selig Brodetsky, who was described by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as the "foremost Zionist in Great Britain".[10] As of 2024 the Board has continued to hold a Zionist position.
The issues which the board states it addresses are:
Events[edit]
In 2003, the Board, on its website, reproduced an extract from a US State Department report that suggested that the aid organisation Palestinian Relief and Development Fund (Interpal) was helping to fund terrorist organisations. Interpal threatened to sue for libel, whereupon the Board retracted and apologised for its comments.[15][16]
In the same year the Jewish Leadership Council, which says it "brings together the major British Jewish organisations to work for the good of the British Jewish community", was founded.
In 2005, after the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, compared a Jewish Evening Standard reporter, Oliver Finegold, to a concentration camp guard, the Board, along with the Commission for Racial Equality, filed an ultimately unsuccessful complaint to the Standards Board for England, calling on Livingstone to apologise. Livingstone responded by stating "there is no law against 'unnecessary insensitivity' or even 'offensiveness' to journalists harassing you as you try to go home" and that he had a "25-year running battle" with the paper's owners.[17][18]
In 2014, at the height of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, the Board issued a joint statement with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia.[19][20] The statement with its slogan 'to export peace rather than import conflict' proved controversial among some on the conservative wing of the Jewish community but was supported by others on the progressive wing and by groups in inter faith circles.[21] The principle of such a statement was approved by a majority of over 75% at a meeting of the Board on 21 September 2014. In December 2015, the new leadership of the Board distanced itself from the MCB over the latter's alleged links to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.[22]
In 2018, over five hundred British Jews signed a letter from Yachad saying that the Board had "deeply misrepresented" their views after the board criticised Hamas for "repeated violent attempts at mass invasion" but did not call for Israeli restraint or acknowledge that the IDF may have acted disproportionately in killing scores of Palestinians. Liberal Judaism said that "the Board's credibility as the voice of British Jewry depends wholly on its willingness to listen to, hear from and reflect the values of all sections of the community".[23]
In July 2018, the Board suspended Roslyn Pine, deputy for Finchley United Synagogue, for six years, following comments she made which were described as Islamophobic, and for admitting to holding anti-Arab views.[24]
Writing in The Jewish Chronicle in November 2018 about antisemitism in the UK Labour Party, Marie van der Zyl said, "Over the summer, we showed how we could keep this issue of antisemitism on the front pages day after day, week after week, exacting a severe political and reputational cost for continued failure."[25] In 2019, following Jeremy Corbyn's decision to resign as leader of the Labour Party, the Board asked candidates for the leadership to sign up to ten pledges in order to "end the antisemitism crisis". The pledges included a resolution of outstanding disciplinary cases, lifetime membership bans for some individuals, an independent disciplinary process, full and unconditional adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, and engagement with the mainstream Jewish community. Most of the candidates for leader or deputy leader signed up unconditionally.[26][27]
In 2020, the Board clashed with the new Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, and some members of the community over the Board's continued commitment to Palestinian statehood as part of a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.[28][29]
Scotland[edit]
After Scottish devolution in 1999, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities was formed to give the Jewish Community of Scotland a single democratically accountable voice in dealings with the Scottish Parliament and Executive, other communities, and other statutory and official bodies. The intention when it was established was for it to stand in the same relationship to the Scottish Government as the Board of Deputies of British Jews does to the UK Government. Consequently, the council is autonomous in matters devolved by the Scotland Act, such as justice, health and welfare, and community relations, whilst the Board of Deputies speaks for all Britain's Jews on reserved matters such as foreign affairs and equality legislation.
