Shmuley Boteach accuses British Jews of being uncomfortably silent in the face of attacks on Israel. However it would be truer to say that our community is loud and proud in its proactive support of Israel, and very comfortable with it.

While it would be charitable to put Rabbi Shmuley’s wholly inaccurate piece down to his writing from 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic, the sad truth is that his repetitive attacks on the British Jewish community are like a broken record.

Far from being silent on Jack Straw’s recent attack on Israel and the American Jewish lobby (and Straw is disputing the words ascribed to him), here’s what we said as the UK’s Jewish representative body:
“Whatever words Jack Straw may have used, they veered dangerously close to hoary antisemitic themes. Ambassador Daniel Taub was right to call them out.”

Rabbi Shmuley goes on to make the observation that Jewish students at some English universities are afraid to identify as Jewish or wear a yarmulke. As the Jewish leader with responsibility for the welfare of our students on campus, I do not know of a single university where that is true. On the contrary, our students are powerfully represented by the Union of Jewish Students, one of whose members is a Vice President of Britain’s National Union of Students. In Shmuley’s time NUS was no friend of the community’s concerns. Thanks to UJS’ strong advocacy, NUS has formally rejected boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) and recently restated its adoption of the EUMC working definition of antisemitism, which cites a wide category of forms of hostility to Israel as antisemitic.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel