Tackling anti-Semitism

With the significant increase in antisemitic incidents since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, the Board of Deputies has been working closely with the CST and other organisations to ensure the community is protected, and to tackle offenders.  In the past week:

• The Board has written to the Home Secretary to seek a meeting and updating her on the most recent incidents.
• Chief Executive, Gillian Merron (pictured above), has liaised with officials in the Department of Communities and Local Government over the action necessary to promote community cohesion, following the Minister’s meeting with CST.
• The Board has sought to liaise with the London Jewish Forum to ensure that the Mayor’s office (which has oversight of the work of the Met Police) is ensuring that incidents are handled properly.  The Board is also seeking to work with Assembly members to press this case.
• We have continued to liaise, through the CST, with the police and prosecution service to ensure that all necessary action is taken to protect the community from anti-semitic attacks
• We have spoken with many of the retailers being targeted by anti-Israel protesters, to ensure kosher products remain on sale and neither customers nor shopworkers face intimidation.
• Meetings and conversations have also been held with interfaith colleagues to identify ways of working together to promote community cohesion.
• Meanwhile, the Board’s honorary officers and senior staff have maintained their high presence in the media with interviews and comment in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and elsewhere, as well as supporting pro-Israel pro-peace rallies and events in Brighton and Manchester.