Open letter from British Jews to Archbishop Welby, September 2024

The letter below is being circulated to gather the signatures of UK

Jews, before being delivered to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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If you identify as Jewish and wish to support the letter, please sign HERE

The Archbishop of Canterbury

Lambeth Palace, London

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Dear Archbishop Welby

The signatories of this letter are Jews from a wide range of perspectives, united in our outrage at Israel’s savage war on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

We greatly welcome your recent statement (August 2nd) that, in the light of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 19th July, Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal and Israel should immediately withdraw.

We write now to urge you to take full account of the diversity of Jewish opinion on Israel and Palestine, both religious and secular, and to widen the range of Jewish organisations that you listen to and meet with.

We deplore the unfailing backing Israel receives from the supposedly official voices of British Jewry, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) and the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. The BoD regularly insists that its is the sole legitimate voice, and that other Jewish voices, which it does not hesitate to denigrate, must be ignored. Equally concerning is the fact that mainstream politicians and media seem to accept the BoD’s claim to be the sole representative of British Jews. The result is that British Jews are generally portrayed as supporting the occupation of Palestine, the proliferating illegal settlements, and, now, the mass killings in Gaza.

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In fact, the BoD and Chief Rabbi Mirvis represent only a minority of the British Jewish community [i]. To be involved in electing Deputies to the Board, one must be a member of a United or other BoD-affiliated synagogue, or be connected to one of the BoD-affiliated communal organisations. Rabbi Mirvis is Chief Rabbi only of the United Synagogue, a union of Orthodox British synagogues, but not of the other Jewish denominations. 

Jews who are not members of United or other BoD-affiliated organisations are not represented. For example, the UK Haredi community, some 75,000 strong [ii], about 25% of all British Jews, along with most secular Jews, are not represented by either Chief Rabbi Mirvis or the BOD, whose views on Israel many of us strongly oppose [iii]. 

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We ask you to reflect on the shame and horror we feel at being represented as approving of the murderous oppression of Palestinians by the self-declared Jewish supremacist state of Israel. To be tarred with the brush of complicity in its programme of land theft, house demolitions, pogroms and, now, mass killing, connects us, viscerally, to our own historic experience as victims of pogroms and the Nazi genocide. In the light of this alone, we are resolute in our condemnation of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands.

We are deeply concerned at the systematic deployment of the charge of antisemitism against those, including Jews, who criticise Israel. The charge of antisemitism has particular impact on members of Muslim communities who, as reported to us, too often feel unable to speak freely on Palestine and Israel. Their perspectives and concerns are being silenced by the amplification of establishment Jewish perspectives.

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Many Jews dissent from the position of the BOD and Chief Rabbi Mirvis, as witness the array of Jewish organisations critical of Israel – Jewish Voice for Labour, Jewish Network for Palestine, Na’amod, Black-Jewish Alliance, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Socialist Group, as well as the Haredi communities [iv]. The national marches for Palestine incorporate a Jewish Bloc, sometimes more than one thousand strong.

Attributing, to all British Jews, the views of the BOD and Chief Rabbi Mirvis, perpetuates the misleading impression of the UK Jewish community as a monolithic bloc. This falsehood harms community relations, not least because it plays to the antisemitic trope that Jews, by our very nature, are of one mind in pursuit of self-serving and nefarious purposes. The British establishment’s support for Israel, despite the steadily mounting evidence of genocide, strengthens the impression of sinister Jewish power.

The need to nurture positive relations between the Established Church and the Jewish establishment should not lead to the marginalisation of other Jewish voices, and must not overrule the urgent need to recognise and denounce the evil of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

It is desperately urgent that dissenting Jewish voices should be heard. We write because we believe that as head of the Established Church, you should listen. We ask that you agree to meet a delegation drawn from the list of signatories below. The organisers of this letter would welcome the opportunity to facilitate such an engagement.

We are yours Sincerely

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Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor, St Antony’s College, Oxford University

Antony Lerman, Senior Fellow at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Vienna (patron of CAMPAIN)
Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC, former Chair, British Institute of Human Rights

Sir Stephen Sedley, KC, former High Court Judge and Visiting Professor at University of Oxford 

Paul Oestreicher OBE, former member of General Synod of CofE and former Chair of Amnesty International

Graeme Segal, FRS, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College Oxford
David Epstein FRS, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick

Philip Wadler FRS, Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Congregation (ELJC)

Dr Denis Rutovitz, MBE, worked for Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit and founded the charity Edinburgh Direct Aid in 1992 in response to the horrors of the war in Bosnia

Michael Rosen, Author

Alexei Sayle, Comedian

Richard Kuper, co-founder of Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Jenny Manson, Co-Chair, Jewish Voice for Labour

Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi, Media Officer, Jewish Voice for Labour

Jonathan Rosenhead, Chair, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine

Moshé Machover, Emeritus Professor, KCL

Miranda Pinch, Producer of documentary From Balfour to Banksy, CAMPAIN

Robert A.H. Cohen (see Writing from the Edge)

Dr. George Wilmers, Mathematical Logician

Professor Ludi Simpson, Hon. Professor, University of Manchester School of Social Sciences

David Mond, CAMPAIN

Bernard Spiegal, CAMPAIN

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If you are Jewish and wish, to support this letter, please sign HERE

Signing in is simple but if you have any problems please let us know by writing to admin@campain.org.

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​Endnotes​

​i.     See reprint of a 2015 article by Joseph Finlay in the Jewish Quarterly

ii.    See report of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research on Haredi Jews around the World; population trends and estimates

iii.   See article on orthodox Jews protesting at a BoD annual dinner

iv.   See article on orthodox Jewish organisations letter of gratitude to Jeremy Corbyn ​​​​

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