The Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia.
A Liberal Judaism congregation. Registered Charity No. 1053565.

NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2006 -

BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS
BULLETIN BOARD NOVEMBER 2006

These are the headlines of the Board’s activities in the last two months.

19 September
The Board calls upon the international community to act with urgency in response to the continuing humanitarian crisis in Darfur and commends World Jewish Aid (WJAID) for the part it played in organising the multi-faith prayers for Darfur in Downing Street.

20 September
The Board condemns Baroness Tonge’s comments at a fringe meeting of the Liberal Democrat Party Conference. Stating that “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world” and “a certain grip on our party,” Her comments came just two weeks after an All Party Parliamentary Committee showed a rise of antisemitism in the UK, particularly in the form of anti-Jewish prejudice in conversations, discussions or pronouncements made in public and in private.

25 September
Newly elected to the Board’s Executive Committee are an award-winning journalist, a barrister, a professor of immunopathology and, for a second term, a PR and communications specialist. Alex Brummer, city editor for the Daily Mail and recipient of the 2006 Business Journalist of the Year Award, was elected as Vice Chairman of the International Division; Adam Dawson, a barrister specialising in clinical negligence and personal injury, was elected as Vice Chairman of the Community Issues Division where he has been a member since 2000; David Katz, a professor at University College London was elected as Vice Chairman of the Defence and Group Relations Division; and former marketing and communications director David Farbey was elected to his second term as Vice Chairman of the Finance and Organisation Division.

27 September
Board Vice President, Flo Kaufmann JP, Chairman of the International Division, and Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust and past President of the Board of Deputies, the Lord Janner of Braunstone QC, together with the British Ambassador to Ukraine, H.E. Timothy Barrow LVO were in Kiev to commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, as the official delegation of the United Kingdom.

4 October
Senior representatives of the Board met with Phil Woolas MP, Minister of State for Local Government and Community Cohesion at the newly created Department for Community and Local Government (DCLG). The delegation was led by Henry Grunwald QC, President of the Board, and included Senior Vice President Vivian Wineman and Chief Executive Jon Benjamin. Mr Woolas stressed the importance of the Jewish community in fostering good communal relations, in its role as a model for integration and as a consultative partner for the newly announced Commission for Cohesion and Integration.

5 October
The Board’s travelling Jewish Way of Life Exhibition goes on display at the Bedford Modern School. Supported by the Bedford Charity, the award-winning exhibition will be there until 30 November 2006.

19 October
Board responds to the High Court’s decision to uphold Mayor Ken Livingstone’s appeal against a finding that he brought his office into disrepute when he likened a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Noting that the judge, Mr Justice Collins, had branded the Mayor’s comments as 'unnecessarily insensitive and offensive’ and had stated that the Mayor should have apologised Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Board, observes that the Board’s position from the outset has been vindicated.

10 -26 October
The Board, following consultation within the Jewish community, expresses opposition to Lord Baker’s proposed amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill. The amendment will have the effect of imposing admissions quotas, thereby forcing faith schools to admit pupils who do not practise the faith of the school.

The Board’s President, Henry Grunwald QC, together with the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the chairman of the Catholic Education Service for England & Wales, Indarjit Singh, the director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, Ramesh Kallidai, director of the Hindu Forum and Tahir Alam, vice-chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, publish a letter in the TIMES opposing the admissions quotas on voluntary aided faith schools and urging ‘practical proposals to enhance social cohesion and cultural interaction’. Board leads an interfaith coalition against the proposal, briefing Peers and working with the Council of Christians and Jews to brief Bishops in the House of Lords.

When the Government introduces its own proposals for faith school quotas, the Board launches a united community-wide campaign in opposition. Chief Executive Jon Benjamin and Community Issues Director Alex Goldberg speak out on the issue on Sky and BBC television. Rabbis, including Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, teachers, parents and governors mobilise to write letters and to lobby MPs. Board President Henry Grunwald QC meets twice with Education Secretary Alan Johnson - first as a part of an interfaith delegation and later in the week on behalf of the community – to make the case for Jewish schools. Six days later, after facing further opposition from the Catholic Church and Conservative Party, with whom the Board has been consulting, the Government decides to drop its controversial amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill.

31 October
The Board writes to Lib-Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell MP to condemn the decision by St Andrews University to award an Honorary Doctorate to Mohammed Khatami, the former President of Iran. Sir Menzies is chancellor of the University and subsequently excuses himself from the award ceremony.

Board President, Henry Grunwald QC, following an earlier written submission, gives oral evidence to the House of Commons International Development Select Committee on the subject of aid to the Palestinians. Emphasising the need for accountability and transparency in the delivery of aid to responsible agencies, he also stresses the imperative “to engage with those organisations promoting the development of civil society in Israel and the Palestinian Territories”.