On April 22, 2021, to acclaim from every sector of Britain’s Jewish community, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) published its report on “Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community.” It was the result of a 10-month investigation that was, as the Board put it, “unparalleled in UK Jewish history” – an investigation into the experiences of Jews from ethnic minorities as well as Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews.
The report made no less than 119 recommendations, which seemed to imply that there was much wrong with the situation inside British Jewry. Regardless of whether some or all of the recommendations are implemented, the mere fact of their publication has profound implications for UK’s Jewish community.
In launching its report, the Board explained that the death of George Floyd in the US in May 2020 at the hands of the police had acted as a wake-up call in many sectors of British life, as it had done all over the world. Community leaders across the nation acknowledged that, despite decades of positive action, racism and discrimination remained embedded in British society. The BoD recognized that this was equally true of the Jewish community. Expressions of good intent in the media were not enough. Positive action was needed.
“No community is immune from the scourge of prejudice,” the Board wrote, “and ours is no exception.” As society as a whole sought to express its solidarity with those in the US and beyond seeking to remedy racial discrimination, the BoD’s attention was drawn to “moving and concerning testimonies of black members of our own community about their experiences.”
Stephen Kupakwesu Bush, born in 1990, is of mixed race which includes some Jewish heritage. One of his grandfathers was “the last ‘proper’ Jew in the family,” Bush once explained. He “married out” so, as Bush wrote, “none of his children, let alone his grandchild, were Jewish, although we have retained a token observation of the major festivals.”
Bush, educated at a state comprehensive school in east London, won a place at Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied history. Upon graduating in 2011 he worked for the magazine Progress, before writing for the Daily Telegraph. He joined the prestigious left-wing weekly journal New Statesman in 2015, and was appointed political editor in 2018.
During the years that Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour party, Bush came to realize and condemn the failings of the party in general, and Corbyn in particular, in dealing with the problem of overt antisemitism. In October 2020 he wrote about the “number of times when, through a combination of action or inaction [Corbyn] revealed himself to be beyond the pale.”
At the launch Bush said: “I hope my report will enhance communal life for black Jews, Jews of color and Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews. Many of these recommendations, I believe, have a far wider applicability... A proactive attitude to inclusion will draw in many people of all backgrounds who have felt marginalized, left out or turned off from Jewish life… Giving as many people as possible a sense of belonging and a full ability to participate will nourish, strengthen and enrich the Jewish community further, for the benefit of all its members.”
Almost all the witnesses who gave evidence to the Commission expressed a strong connection with Israel, but some felt betrayed by a lack of communal support.
“My family would not be alive today if it were not for the State of Israel,” one said. “I feel let down when my rabbi welcomes an anti-Israel MP to my synagogue.”
“When I am in Israel,” said another, “I see plenty of Jews like me. But the Israel I know is never represented here in the United Kingdom... Israel is one of the most multi-racial and tolerant democracies in the world, and more should be made of this by the BoD.”
Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews complained about the assumption in the community that the British Jewish experience is solely an Ashkenazi one. As one witness put it: “the Sephardi/Mizrahi story is left out of Jewish education in the UK. It’s very ‘Ashkenazicentric.’”
Another testified: “I went to Jewish school in my entire life, and I don’t think I ever learned about my history, my story, my father, his story, or any similar stories. It... went from the pogroms to the Holocaust, to the foundation of the State of Israel.” The 3,000 year history of Jewish communities who never left the Middle East was simply ignored.
Some called for better, more open, more critical Israel advocacy to reflect their concerns.
“The community’s Israel advocacy is something I find very difficult,” said one. “As somebody who has a dual identity, I feel very Jewish and I feel very black. I’m Eritrean. I have Eritrean family in Israel who are treated abominably... it is a very difficult thing to deal with when there is Israel advocacy which is presented in a non-critical, no-criticism way.”
Another complained of the experience of traveling to Israel. “Getting in and out as a Jew of color is terrible and can be traumatizing. In Israel I have no issues, but [on arrival] I am… viewed with a great deal of suspicion. There needs to be advocacy about this on our behalf by British Jewish leadership.”
Other witness statements highlighted what the report terms “stigmatization of minorities-within-the-minority.” As one Mizrahi witness reflected, as youngsters the only time they saw people who looked like them were in depictions of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Moses was always European or Ashkenazi; Pharaoh distinctly Middle Eastern. On the other hand, several praised Simon Schama’s TV series and accompanying book The Story of the Jews for providing a comprehensive description of the Diaspora’s history and diversity.
Unhappy experiences at school featured in the evidence: “I was at one of the top Jewish schools in the UK, and there were only a handful of us who were black in our year. I had a huge racist experience with teachers and students. And my first experience of being called the ‘N word’ was at my school.”
The 119 recommendations in the report attempt to cover these and a multitude of other issues raised by the witnesses who provided testimony to the Commission. For example the Commission proposes that representative bodies and organizations involved in rabbinic training should encourage members of under-represented ethnic groups to put themselves forward for communal roles.
It recommends that Jewish schools should ensure that their secular curriculum engages with black history, enslavement and the legacy of colonialism, and review their curriculum through a process led by students, particularly those who define themselves as black or of color.
Jewish studies departments should ensure that their teaching celebrates and engages with the racial and cultural diversity of the Jewish community worldwide, including the Mizrahi, Sephardi and Yemenite tradition.
Schools and youth movements should improve training for teachers and youth leaders on tackling racist incidents. Communal bodies and Jewish schools should establish regular listening exercises that seek the concerns of their members or students, and should ensure that complaint processes are accessible, transparent, fair and robust.
A code of conduct should be developed for discourse on social media, making clear that attempts to delegitimize converts, calling people names such as “Kapo,” or using Yiddish terms such as “Shvartzer” in a racist way, are completely unacceptable.
One recommendation with profound implications for all Jewish communities was that Batei Din should improve their conversion processes, including a clearer process for complaints.
The report was acclaimed by every sector of British Jewish life from the chief rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism. The Israeli NGO Tzedek, one of the fifty-plus organizations that are amalgamated under the aegis of Olam, wrote: “We particularly welcome the recommendation that international development should be an advocacy priority for our community, and we look forward to playing our leading role in making this happen.”
The Commission’s findings and recommendations have a relevance that extends far beyond the shores of the UK.