Corbyn’s roundtable on relations with British Jews called off
A series of meetings are to be held with a range of groups following much-anticipated talks with Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council this week
Justin Cohen is the News Editor at the Jewish News
Jeremy Corbyn’s roundtable on relations between the Jewish community and Labour has been postponed, Jewish News has learnt.
The Labour leader invited numerous community groups for a ‘Respect and Engagement’ event on 25 April, just 24 hours after talks are scheduled between Corbyn, the Board and JLC.
Invitees to the meeting were urged to “contribute to a fruitful and constructive discussion on moving forward”.
But the Board and JLC said they could “see no reason” to go so soon after the main meeting, urging others to follow suit. The CST, Liberal Judaism, Masorti Judaism and UJS were among those to do so.
Concerns were raised after it became apparent an invite had also been extended to Jewish Voice for Labour, a group which has long questioned whether claims of anti-Semitism in the party are exaggerated and led a counter-demo against the Enough is Enough rally in Parliament Square.
Labour sources indicated that a series of meetings would be held with a wide range of groups and individuals in the coming weeks – with the first on Tuesday being with the “most representative groups”. It’s understood there will be engagement with JVL as part of the process
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