‘We are not one voice’: Divides in UK’s Jewish community deepen over Gaza war

Israel’s renewed military campaign in Gaza has sparked sharp exchanges between the country and stalwart allies including Britain. But alongside the trading of diplomatic blows, the war is also exposing growing splits within the UK’s Jewish community over criticism of the Israeli government amid a tide of rising antisemitism.

Tensions resurfaced this week after an elected member of Britain’s largest Jewish body, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, resigned in protest, accusing community leaders of failing to acknowledge growing discontent over Israel’s actions in Gaza and a wider failure to “act morally” in response to the war.

Daniel Grossman told The i Paper he had felt “compelled” to stand down and accused the board of “stifling dissent”. The move came after he was placed under disciplinary proceedings for signing a public letter criticising the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. Grossman was one of 36 representatives facing sanctions from the board, which advocates for Jewish interests in the UK.

Grossman, 21, the representative of the Union of Jewish Students on the board until his resignation, also criticised the UK Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, accusing him of appearing to align himself with the Israeli government. He pointed to Mirvis’s keynote speech at a Jerusalem conference hosted by Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar – an event at which the chief rabbi also sat alongside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a dinner.

At the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference last week, Mirvis stated that being “anti-Zionist” – opposing the existence of a Jewish state – was equivalent to being “anti-Jewish” and “anti-Judaism”.

The chief rabbi, who is understood to firmly reject any suggestion of political alignment, has previously warned that overt criticism of Israel from within the UK Jewish community in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks risked being “destabilising” – though he insisted this was not a “call for silence”.

Diplomatic blows

The row is the latest flashpoint in tensions within Britain’s 290,000-strong Jewish community over how – and whether – to criticise Israel’s leadership, as international condemnation of its Gaza offensive intensifies.

The UK and Israel have already come to blows diplomatically after Foreign Secretary David Lammy last month described Israel’s military escalation, which has so far left more than 54,000 Palestinians dead, as “morally unjustifiable”. The move prompted Netanyahu to accuse Britain, France and Canada, who had issued a joint statement on Gaza, of being “on the wrong side of justice” and emboldening Hamas.

Last week, nearly 400 prominent writers, including Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson, signed an open letter accusing Israel of genocide and demanding an immediate ceasefire.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, with Netanyahu urging they be dismissed “by decent people everywhere”.

Many within the Jewish diaspora, including in the UK, emphasise that Israel is engaged in an existential conflict triggered by the 7 October, 2023 attacks, when Hamas and other Palestinian militants murdered around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians. Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, some 58 continue to be held – of whom just 21 are thought to be still alive. Some feel that the scale and brutality of those attacks have been too quickly forgotten by international observers.

Daniel Grossman, who has resigned from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said he felt the organisation was ‘stifling dissent’ (Photo: Daniel Grossman)

Grossman, who attends Bristol University, is among those voicing criticism from within the Jewish community. He was one of 36 members of the 300-strong body who signed a letter to the Financial Times last month warning that “Israel’s soul is being ripped out” by the war in Gaza.

The letter marked the first public dissent within the Board of Deputies over the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. It was swiftly rejected by the organisation’s leadership, which said the letter had wrongly given the impression it was speaking on behalf of the board and the views expressed were “not representative” of its official policy on Israel’s conduct in the conflict.

“Opinion within the community is shifting,” said Grossman. “There is a real plurality of voices now. Leaders like the Board of Deputies and the chief rabbi are trying to portray us as fringe – but that’s simply not true.”

The Board of Deputies – whose president last week reaffirmed the organisation’s “unwavering support for Israel” while also urging the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza – said Grossman had stepped down shortly before his term was due to end later this month. A spokesperson added: “We wish him well with his future endeavours.”

‘Weaponised’ criticism

The dispute has laid bare divisions within the Jewish community – between those who believe they should be free to openly criticise the Israeli government, and others who warn that such dissent risks being exploited by those seeking to undermine and divide support for the Jewish state. It comes against a backdrop of rising antisemitism in Britain – 2024 was the second worst year on record for incidents of anti-Jewish hatred or violence.

In response to the open letter, Chief Rabbi Mirvis warned that its signatories risked having their views “misappropriated, distorted and weaponised”. Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, he acknowledged the writers’ sincerity, but cautioned their actions might “soothe their consciences” at the expense of “communal unity”.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has warned that criticism of Israel from within the UK Jewish community risks being misappropriated by the country’s foes (Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA)

Others, however, beg to differ.

Laura Janner-Klausner, a progressive British rabbi leading a campaign for stronger UK intervention in the conflict, said she rejected the argument that British Jews risked playing into the hands of Israel’s enemies if they speak out.

“We are inappropriately being held to account for what is happening thousands of miles away,” she told The i Paper. “One of the reasons for that is we don’t challenge it enough. We have to speak out from a moral point of view as rabbis and Jews, to say that what is happening is morally wrong – and that we as Jews are committed to the law: local, national and international.”

She added: “The voice which says you must not speak because you will hand something to your enemies is basically paranoia.”

Those who believe that no caveats are necessary when it comes to dissenting from the policies or strategy of the current Israeli government point to polling suggesting an evolution in the attitudes of British Jews towards the country’s leadership.

A survey conducted by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research some 12 months after the 7 October attacks found that British Jews were significantly more concerned about the state of Israel’s democracy than they were 15 years ago, with 38 per cent saying they did not believe it to be in a healthy state.

At the same time, a diminishing number of British Jews – just 54 per cent compared to 77 per cent in 2010 – believe that a two-state solution is the only way for Israel to achieve peace with its neighbours.

‘Huge divides’

Given the current political climate in Israel – where Netanyahu’s coalition relies on the support of several ultra-nationalist ministers – Grossman said it was vital that British Jews see the diversity of opinion within their own community acknowledged and reflected. He described it as “concerning” that the chief rabbi had made high-profile appearances alongside members of the Israeli leadership.

“We are seeing huge divides with the UK community and they’re growing,” Grossman said.

“[Chief Rabbi Mirvis] is either unaware or he’s ignorant to the reality in our community that more and more people are uncomfortable by the actions of the [Israeli] government… there is not one Jewish voice in this country, and I don’t think there ever has been.”

The claim that the chief rabbi has aligned himself with government figures in Israel or elsewhere, including the UK, is understood to be flatly rejected. Sources indicated that his participation in events where politicians were present did not represent approval or otherwise, and that his role required being removed from Israeli politics.

Thousands of members of the Jewish community in London gathered at a large memorial event in Hyde Park to commemorate the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks (Photo: Lab Ky Mo/Getty)

A spokesman for the chief rabbi’s office added: “As in any community, there is of course a plurality of opinion among the Jewish community on the way the current Israeli government has managed this tragic conflict.

“But there is near unanimity that Israel is fighting a war against an enemy whose strategy is to maximise the suffering of its own people, and that therefore Hamas must be removed to prevent future atrocities against both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Ten incidents of antisemitism per day

The chief rabbi last week won support from within the Jewish community for his attack on anti-Zionism and robust defence of Israel – as distinct from its leadership – in an environment which has prompted complaints from within the community that antisemitic sentiment has overlapped too readily with debate over Palestine and the war in Gaza.

Mirvis told his audience in the Israeli foreign ministry that Israel was more than a “geopolitical reality for the Jewish people”. “It’s the centre of our Jewish religion… If you are anti-Zionist, you are also anti-Jewish. But more than that, you’re anti-Judaism, and your animosity affects the very well-being of Jews right around the world,” he added

In an editorial, Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer backed Mirvis’s intervention, praising him for speaking “bluntly and without dressing it up”. While acknowledging the paper’s own concerns about Israel’s government, Ferrer described the country as “among the most innovative, open, vibrant societies on the planet in one of the most closed and repressive regions on the planet”.

Others within the British Jewish community said the tensions had to be seen through a prism of rising antisemitism in the UK. The Community Safety Trust, which monitors antisemitic attacks, revealed in February that 2024 was the second worst year on record for anti-Jewish hatred and attacks, with an average of nearly ten incidents a day.

Dave Rich, an expert on antisemitism and author of Everyday Hate, said there was “no safe space outside the Jewish community” for British Jews who support Israel’s right to exist while also criticising or distrusting its government.

Speaking to The i Paper, Rich argued that parts of the pro-Palestinian movement in Britain tend to ignore or downplay “the fanatical, extremist nature” of Israel’s enemies and the existential threats the country faces.

“If you are a British Jew who wants Israel to win this war – just not in the way the Israeli government is doing it – then you don’t want to give any ammunition to those people for their broader anti-Israel campaign,” he said.

Elsewhere, however, it seems undeniable that there are those for whom the existing structures of debate within British Jewry are no longer adequate. As Grossman put it: “The letter which I and the 35 others signed had far more support than that within the Board of Deputies. I think British Jews are looking for new moral guidance and new outlets to express themselves.”