Category Archives: Judaism

Greens must avoid ‘capture by extremists and racists’, says party MP

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Ellie Chowns says vote for ‘Zionism is racism’ policy by 0.4% of members shows party processes are not working

A Green Party MP has said she wants to make sure her party is not “vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists” amid the continuing fallout from the “Zionism is racism” vote.

The party faces a political maelstrom over its policy decision last week to treat Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, as any other form of racism, and to back a single Palestinian state over a two-state solution. The motion was passed at the annual party conference with just over 1,000 votes, approximately 0.4% of the total membership.

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British Jewish groups hold London vigil for victims of 7 October attacks

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Organisations honour those who died three years ago as Andy Burnham says government stands with British Jews

British Jewish organisations gathered in central London on Wednesday for a vigil honouring victims of the 7 October attacks in Israel, after a day of tributes from politicians and community leaders.

The vigil took place at Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “Three years ago, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, murdering 1,200 men, women and children, injuring thousands and taking 251 people captive. May their memories for ever remain a blessing.”

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As it happened: Israel condemns Green party passing ‘Zionism is racism’ as a ‘stain on history of UK’

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Party formally adopts policy which equates Zionism with racism, as all Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism

On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul.

Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied:

Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system.

I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population.

The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to.

Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.

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Man and police officer wounded in exchange of gunfire near Ontario synagogue

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Officials say man was critically injured and officer was wounded in Yom Kippur incident near Belleville synagogue

A police officer and a man were wounded in an exchange of gunfire on Sunday near a synagogue in Ontario as members of the Jewish community marked Yom Kippur, authorities said. The man was hospitalized in life-threatening condition.

The Canadian province’s special investigations unit said the exchange of gunfire happened near the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, about 110 miles (160km) east of Toronto. Belleville police said the officer encountered the man at about 7.10pm and that both were taken to a hospital.

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Senior UK rabbis come out in support of sanctions on Israeli settlements

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Spiritual leaders stress diversity of views within Jewish community and warn against inaction on settler violence

Prominent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end.

The intervention comes after the UK’s chief rabbi, the spiritual leader of mainstream Orthodox Jews in the UK, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, described UK sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as a “dark day for British Jews” and warned they could embolden people who “use hatred as a weapon against Jews”.

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Democrats who marched in New York’s Israel Day parade decry attendance of far-right minister Smotrich

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Politicians’ statements reflect difficulty facing pro-Israel Democrats as voter support for country falls

Several prominent New York Democrats who participated in the city’s annual Israel Day parade on Sunday have condemned the participation of Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister and a leading figure in the Israeli settler movement, in the event.

Smotrich was among several Israeli lawmakers and cabinet officials who marched in the parade on Sunday. His appearance marked his first trip to the US in more than a year, and came less than month after he said the international criminal court (ICC) was seeking an arrest warrant against him.

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‘Time the rest of us stepped up’: terror survivors’ group writes letter in support of UK Jews

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Letter coordinated by Survivors Against Terror, which includes bereaved relatives, after spate of attacks on Jewish community

Dozens of survivors and bereaved relatives of 19 separate terror attacks have written an open letter of solidarity to the Jewish community, saying: “Standing together in the face of hatred is not just the right thing to do – it’s the most effective way of defeating terrorism.”

The letter was coordinated by the group Survivors Against Terror (SAT), after terror attacks on two Jewish men in north London earlier this week, in what was the latest in a series of attacks on the community in the UK.

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NSW police urged Jewish man to drop claim he was subject to antisemitic slurs and death threats, commission told

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Nir Golan was told that there was not much police could do and the case would get thrown out

New South Wales police encouraged a Jewish man to abandon a case against a man who made antisemitic slurs, death threats, and performed Nazi salutes at him in public because the investigation would be “a lot of wasted effort”, the antisemitism royal commission has been told.

Jewish Australian Nir Golan gave evidence on Tuesday, telling commissioner Virginia Bell that police had encouraged him to drop any action because “there’s not much that they could do and the case would ultimately get thrown out”.

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Jewish diaspora leaders urge Israeli president to stop West Bank settler violence

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Former UK foreign secretary among 3,000 signatories of open letter to Isaac Herzog after spate of killings

The former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind is among leading members of the Jewish diaspora urging the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to intervene to stop “attacks by Jewish extremists” on Palestinians in the West Bank.

An open letter to Herzog facilitated by the London Initiative – a liberal Zionist network of 360 people, including eminent Jewish, Israeli and Israeli Palestinian figures – has attracted more than 3,000 signatories, including diplomats, philanthropists, rabbis and academics from Australia, Canada, across Europe, South Africa the UK and US. It follows a spate of killings and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinian civilians in March.

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King Charles made patron of charity protecting Jewish communities

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Charles announced as patron of Community Security Trust hours after attack on another Jewish charity’s ambulances

King Charles has been made patron of a charity that protects Jewish communities in the wake of the firebomb attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which provides protection to Jewish communities, said Charles’s acceptance of the position highlighted his support for the “fight against antisemitism”.

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Belgian investigation into three Jewish men sparks diplomatic row with US

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US ambassador accused of interference after labelling inquiry into suspected illegal circumcisions ‘antisemitic’

A diplomatic row is escalating between Belgium and the US, with Donald Trump’s ambassador refusing to apologise for accusing his host country of antisemitism and reportedly threatening to bar a socialist politician from travelling to the US.

Bill White, a staunch ally of the president like many US ambassadors, on Monday demanded Belgium drop a “ridiculous” and “antisemitic” investigation into three Jewish men suspected of performing circumcisions without medical qualifications.

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British Museum removes word ‘Palestine’ from some displays

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Museum revises labelling on maps and panels, saying term used inaccurately and no longer historically neutral

The British Museum has removed the word “Palestine” from some of its displays, saying the term was used inaccurately and is no longer historically neutral.

Maps and information panels in the museum’s ancient Middle East galleries had referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as Palestine, with some people described as being “of Palestinian descent”.

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UK’s Jewish community feels much less safe since 7 October attack, survey finds

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Research found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain and 32% reported at least one antisemitic incident in 2024

Feelings of safety in the UK’s Jewish community have declined sharply in the last couple of years, according to the largest survey of British Jews since 7 October 2023.

The research, conducted in June and July, found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain in 2025, compared with 9% in 2023 before the Hamas attacks.

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Dorset police investigate antisemitic hate crimes including swastika graffiti

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Officers step up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after teenage boy shot with air rifle

Dorset police have launched an investigation and stepped up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after a wave of antisemitic hate crimes in the seaside town.

Over the weekend, a teenage boy was shot with an air rifle and injured, and swastika graffiti appeared on buildings, police said.

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Israeli children refused access to leisure park in southern France

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Manager of zipline facility detained for alleged religious discrimination after group of eight- to 18-year-olds turned away

The manager of a leisure park in southern France has been detained for alleged religious discrimination after a group of Israeli children were refused access.

The children, aged eight to 16, were on holiday in Spain and had made a reservation for Thursday to use the Tyrovol zipline adventure park in Porté-Puymorens, near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees mountains, the Perpignan prosecutor’s office said.

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UK’s chief rabbi criticises Labour’s Palestine pledge at march for hostages

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Sir Ephraim Mirvis joins relatives of hostages in calling for their release before any recognition of a Palestinian state

The chief rabbi has criticised Labour’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state at a “national march for the hostages” in central London organised by a number of Jewish groups.

Family members of Israeli hostages taken on 7 October also joined the march on Downing Street to urge the release of those being held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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British Jewish leaders call for rapid increase in Gaza aid

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UK’s largest Jewish body adds to pressure on Israel, saying recent move to allow in limited aid was ‘long overdue’

The UK’s largest Jewish organisation has called for a “rapid, uninhibited, and sustained increase in aid through all available channels” in Gaza in a rare implicit criticism of the Israeli government.

The Board of Deputies held an emergency meeting on Tuesday evening amid growing horror among British Jews at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with children malnourished and starving and desperate parents being killed as they try to secure food for their families.

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Spanish discovery suggests Roman era ‘church’ may have been a synagogue

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Oil lamp fragments point to presence of previously unknown Jewish population in Ibero-Roman town of Cástulo

Seventeen centuries after they last burned, a handful of broken oil lamps could shed light on a small and long-vanished Jewish community that lived in southern Spain in the late Roman era as the old gods were being snuffed out by Christianity.

Archaeologists excavating the Ibero-Roman town of Cástulo, whose ruins lie near the present-day Andalucían town of Linares, have uncovered evidence of an apparent Jewish presence there in the late fourth or early fifth century AD.

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Pro-Palestine group targets Jewish-owned business in London

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Palestine Action says it carried out early hours attack in which windows were smashed and claims company has links to Israeli arms firm

A Jewish-owned business in north London has been daubed in red paint and its shop window smashed by pro-Palestinian campaigners in an incident police are treating as racially aggravated.

Three men were caught on CCTV in the early hours of Thursday attacking an investment group in Stamford Hill, an area with a large community of orthodox Jews.

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Two UK Jewish movements vote to become one progressive group

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Merger of Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism will be first in any major religion for more than half a century

Two Jewish movements in the UK have united to form Progressive Judaism, embracing female rabbis, same-sex marriage and mixed-faith couples and representing about a third of British Jews who are affiliated to synagogues.

Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism took the historic step of voting to unite at parallel meetings on Sunday. Each vote easily exceeded the required 75% threshold for the move, with about 95% in favour.

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