Rallying with Racists
JVL Introduction
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council were right to call a rally in opposition to rising antisemitism but we are horrified at how they did this and who they invited as co-sponsors and as speakers. Here a Rabbi from the Movement for Progressive Judaism (MPJ) addresses his words to that movement but it makes important reading for us all. He is disappointed that the MPJ continued to support the rally even as its nature became clearer and even as the New Israel Fund withdrew its support and participation. As he says: “Antisemitism is real and scary, but our fears cannot be allowed to conquer our values.”
The organisers seem more than comfortable with a number of organisations who are explicitly Islamophobic; they invited Nigel Farage (although it was the Reform Party’s Deputy Leader who spoke). Nigel Farage was openly racist and antisemitic at school and at least until the 1990s; he has still not apologised for these attitudes. Indeed, his Party wants to repeal the Equalities Act, which includes protection for Jews.
And it was not just the organisers: Tice was cheered as was Kemi Badenoch while Labour Minister Pat McFadden was booed as was Keir Starmer when he went to Golders Green after the latest, dreadful attack; even Ed Davey, LibDem leader was initially booed and Peter Tatchell was assaulted. Zack Polanski, the only Jewish leader who has been subjected to antisemitic attacks himself, was not even invited.
These people are doing nothing to protect Jews from rising antisemitism. It is clear that to combat antisemitism requires stopping the conflation of Judaism and Zionism and working with our Muslim sisters and brothers.
Our thanks for Vashti for permission to publish (a link to donate to Vashti is at the end of the article)
LL
This article was originally published by Vashti Media on Fri 15 May 2026. Read the original here.
Rallying with Racists
A message to the Movement for Progressive Judaism.
Loading article text…
What does the never knowingly undersold or overstated Phil Rosenberg have to say about this PR débâcle? Is he not in charge? Does the BoD buck not stop with him?
As a self-employed Government Relations Consultant his ‘specialisms’ include Strategy and Messaging. How would he rate the Bod’s performance on a scale of 0 to 10? 0 Could do better? In his November 2024 book ‘Hope Never Disappoints…’ Pope Francis wrote “according to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide”. Israel unsurprisingly was livid about the Pope’s intervention. At the time, Rosenberg was a Senior Director at Fleetwood Strategy and his Linkedin profile online, rather embarrassingly, was headed by a nice ‘photo of him having a cozy chat with the Pope. I flagged this up to Mr Rosenberg. But he was too busy giving important people advice about Strategy and Messaging. Eventually the ‘photo was removed. And he became President of BoD. In that capacity, in the wake of this shambolic 10 May ‘rally’ has there been any word from him? Qua President? Or is he on retreat in the Vatican chewing the fat with the Pope?
! don’t agree the start of the intro: “The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council were right to call a rally in opposition to rising antisemitism but we are horrified at how they did this and who they invited as co-sponsors and as speakers. “
I do not think that we could support the call from these organisations. Why?
1. The question of whether, and to what extent “there is ‘rising antisemitism” is itself contentious. I do not think we should buy into this.
2. By the very nature of these organisations, they were bound to organise a rally whose aims we could not support, ie to exaggerate the extent of antisemitism as a cover for supporting Israel and for action against supporters of Palestinian resistance.