British Jews Bored of Deputies

A new campaign

Enough bureaucracy. Enough silence. Enough excuses.

For British Jews disgruntled with an establishment that no longer speaks for them.

Why this campaign?

The problem

Representation that doesn't represent.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews exists to speak for the community. For too many of us, it doesn't — because it's bureaucratic, clueless, and ineffective.

Bureaucratic

Three hundred deputies. Dozens of committees. A culture that prizes process over impact. Decisions move at the speed of the next plenary — the world doesn't wait.

Clueless

Out of touch with mainstream British Jewish opinion — especially on Israel — and quietly captured by a small group of activists who turn up to every meeting and win position after position.

Ineffective

When it matters — in Parliament, in the media, on campus — the Board is too often invisible, outmanoeuvred, or actively undermining the community it claims to represent.

Case in point

What happened

The April 2025 letter.

In April 2025, a tiny fringe group of just 36 deputies — barely 10% of the Board of Deputies of British Jews — staged a pathetic act of betrayal.

They signed a letter to the Financial Times that viciously slammed Israel's actions in Gaza. They whined that they could “no longer stay silent.” They claimed Israel's “soul is being ripped out.” They smugly declared its policies ran “contrary to our Jewish values” — all while slyly signing as Board members and issuing a press release that made it sound like an official communal statement.

“Israel's soul is being ripped out.”

— the 36, in their letter to the Financial Times

The backlash was swift and humiliating. The Board's leadership condemned the stunt as unsanctioned and misleading, triggering an immediate complaints procedure against every single one of the 36 for breaching the code of conduct and bringing the organisation into disrepute. An extraordinary executive meeting suspended the Vice Chair of the International Division on the spot.

  • 5 formally suspended
  • 31 notices of criticism
  • 36/36 sanctions upheld on appeal

  1. 36 deputies sign the FT letter; complaints filed against all 36; Vice Chair of the International Division suspended.

  2. 5 formally suspended. 31 issued official notices of criticism.

  3. Appeal panel upholds the sanctions in a final ruling.

The 36 self-indulgent rebels stand exposed as a loud but irrelevant minority — stripped of credibility, disciplined by their own peers, and left looking like naive troublemakers who prioritised virtue-signalling over solidarity with Israel and the vast majority of British Jews. Their “principled stand” achieved nothing except public embarrassment and a permanent black mark on their records.

See the 36

Meet the deputies

The 36 .

The deputies who signed — appointed to the Board by progressive synagogues, movements, and affiliated organisations. Their constituents deserve to know who they are.

Liberal Jewish Synagogue

  • Harriett Goldenberg
  • Daniel Mautner
  • Karen Maxwell
  • Noemi Csogor Under 35 Observer

Movement for Reform Judaism

  • Zac Bates-Fisher
  • Ido Ben-Shaul

Jewish Labour Movement

  • Ben Heath

Finchley Progressive

  • Emma Prinsley

Yachad

  • Tessa Milligan
  • Elinor Milne

Alyth Gardens Reform

  • Sophie Hasenson
  • Annabelle Daiches
  • Mike Mendoza

Bromley Reform

  • Janvier Palmer
  • Toby Millis Under 35 Observer

Cardiff Reform

  • Eddie Cawston

Finchley Reform

  • Robert Stone
  • Nina Morris-Evans
  • Bailey Prevezer

Maidenhead Reform

  • Leigh Dworkin

Sheffield Reform

  • Jane Ginsborg

Thanet Reform

  • Lawrence Ray

Manchester Menorah

  • Baron Frankal

St Albans Masorti

  • Deborah Barnett
  • Harry Lampert Under 35 Observer

Habonim Dror

  • Lottie Blankstone

NW Surrey

  • Philip Goldenberg

Union of Jewish Students

  • Daniel Grossman

South London Liberal

  • Daniel Howard-Schiff

Limmud

  • Nat Kunin

Birmingham Progressive

  • Tommer Spence Under 35 Observer

Southgate Progressive

  • Tom Rich

Kingston Liberal

  • Rebecca Singerman-Knight

Nottingham Liberal

  • Karen Worth
  • Katie Marks Under 35 Observer

Lancaster & Lakes Jewish Community

  • Eva Lawrence Under 35 Observer

Source: On the Dark Side — The constituencies of the deputies who signed the mendacious FT letter (16 April 2025).

Why this matters

What's at stake

It speaks in your name.

The Board doesn't just talk to itself. It talks to government, the media, and the world — in your name. That's why it matters who's writing the script.

The Board speaks for British Jewry.

It briefs MPs. It briefs ministers. It speaks to the BBC and The Times. It elects leaders who tour the world claiming to represent us. Whatever it says lands as “the British Jewish position” — on Israel, on antisemitism, on faith schools, on shechita, on a hundred other things that affect every Jewish family in this country. The wording isn't neutral. It reflects whoever wrote it.

A loud minority has been writing the script.

A small, organised, ideologically uniform group has dominated the Board's plenaries and committees for years. They turn up. They whip votes. They put their people on every panel. The April 2025 FT letter was the visible tip — the rest is years of statements, appointments, and decisions that went their way because nobody else contested them.

The only way to fix it is to replace them.

You can't out-argue people who out-organise you. You can't fix the Board by shouting from the outside — the deputies decide. Either we elect different deputies, or we accept the ones we've got. There is no third option.

What we're doing about it

The plan

Beat them at their own game.

The left has spent years organising. Whipping votes. Putting candidates on the ballot in synagogues no-one else paid attention to. That's how a fringe minority ends up signing letters in your name.

This campaign exists to change that. We're recruiting clever, right-leaning British Jews to stand for election as deputies — and building serious campaigns behind them.

Stand for election

If you're a member of a synagogue or affiliated organisation entitled to elect a deputy, you can stand. We'll help you win — with strategy, messaging, organisation, and people on the ground.

Back a candidate

Every winning campaign needs a team: researchers, organisers, fundraisers, comms, donors. If you can't stand yourself, help us put serious people on the Board.

More on standing

Stand for election

Why you should stand.

The left has won by turning up. The only way to change who speaks for British Jewry is for serious people to stand — and win. Here's what that actually means.

  1. What is the Board?

    The Board of Deputies of British Jews is the elected representative body of the UK Jewish community, founded in 1760. Around 300 deputies are sent by synagogues, communal charities, student bodies, and other affiliated organisations to speak for British Jews — to government, to the media, and to the public.

  2. What does a deputy actually do?

    Deputies meet in plenary several times a year to debate motions, set communal positions, and elect leadership. The real work happens in committees — international affairs, defence and group relations, education, interfaith, communal grants, and others. Some deputies are deeply engaged. Many turn up rarely. The activists shape outcomes precisely because most deputies don't.

  3. Who can stand?

    If you're a member in good standing of a synagogue or affiliated communal organisation entitled to elect a deputy, you can be nominated. Most candidates stand through their own synagogue. You don't need to be a veteran lay leader — you need to be willing to put your name forward.

  4. What's the time commitment?

    A handful of Sunday afternoons a year for plenaries, plus committee work if you want to do more. It's voluntary and unpaid. You set the dial — contribute steadily or contribute heavily — but turning up is the price of being heard.

  5. Why stand now?

    For years the left has won by default, because they're the only ones who keep showing up. The April 2025 FT letter — and the disciplinary crisis it triggered — proved how much damage a small, organised minority can do when nobody else is in the room. Reversing it requires the other side to organise too. That starts with people willing to stand.

We'll back you with strategy, messaging, organisation, and people on the ground.

Ways to get involved — coming soon.