To: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis

Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations

5th July 2025

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Dear Rabbi Mirvis

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You feed the antisemitism you claim to oppose, and divert attention from the horrors of Israel's War on Palestinians

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CAMPAIN is an organisation concerned with misrepresentation in public life, which includes the misuse of language.

As Chief Rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations we estimate that you speak for a minority of UK Jews – maybe a quarter. You do not represent other denominations or secular Jews, although you are often presented in the media as the Jewish representative of Jews in Britain.

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Whatever your view of Bob Vylan’s chants at Glastonbury, we are deeply concerned at your characterising them as ‘antisemitic’. He didn’t mention Jews, only an army and it was their behaviour, not their Jewishness, he criticised.

The UK Screen Industry – vide The Guardian – said that the chants were not a literal threat, ‘it is a call for the dismantling of a brutal military apparatus that is committing war crimes’ they said.

Moreover, we suggest that the greatest antisemitism is to equate the vile behaviour of the IDF with Judaism. To do so encourages many to blame all Jews for the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and the behaviour of the settlers.

By implying that the IDF is supported by all Jews, you feed the very antisemitism you oppose and create precisely the kind of antisemitic trope you condemn. 

In 2024 you called the IDF 'our heroic soldiers'. In a recent article, you claim that Zionism is ‘inseparable from our Judaism’. Many Jews totally reject this.

The possible rise in antisemitism is partially driven by the perception, exacerbated by your comments, that it is Jews in general who are committing crimes.

Our other particular concern is that while this debate rages with your encouragement it overshadows the real story. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed, maimed, orphaned, dispossessed and hounded out of their homes and into so-called 'safe' zones.  We cannot recall you making any statement condemning Israel’s war on Palestinians

Yours sincerely

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Miranda Pinch, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Director of CAMPAIN Ltd.

Bernard Spiegal, secular Jew, Director of CAMPAIN Ltd.