Anti-Israel Satmar group forges UK rabbis’ pro-Corbyn letter

London haredi umbrella group said "the letter is fake and bears no authority from any of the assigned names."

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel (photo credit: REUTERS/DARREN ORNITZ)
Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel
(photo credit: REUTERS/DARREN ORNITZ)
A hassidic group disseminated a letter in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has come under fire for supporting antisemites, in which the signatures of haredi leaders in the UK were forged.
The Jewish Community Council of North London tweeted overnight Tuesday to “confirm and clarify this letter is fake and bears no authority from any of the assigned names.”

The letter, purportedly from the leadership of London’s haredi umbrella organization, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, claims to have the support of the UOHC’s Principal Rabbinical Authority Ephraim Padwa, Senior Dayan (religious court judge) S. Friedman, and 27 others.

“We were shocked to learn about those that are claiming in the media that the Jews of Britain are outraged towards the Labour party’s respected leader Jeremy Corbin [sic],” the letter reads. “Jews are faithful to G-d andseek [sic] the peace of the country they reside in and respect their leaders and heaven forbid will not attack their political leaders... We will endure the burden of exile and continue the ways of modesty here like the thousands of years of our exile in all generations.”
 
The letter was tweeted by an account calling itself True Torah Jews, which is linked with extremist Satmar Hassids who oppose the State of Israel. The account’s website says its “mission is to inform the world that the State of Israel does not represent Jews or Judaism.”
The Twitter account shared the letter as Rosh Hashanah began on Sunday evening, and was shared more than 1,600 times before the JCC debunked it.