The Board of Deputies has secured the support of dozens of parliamentary candidates for its policy document which backs issues of interest to the Jewish community.
The representative organisation launched its Jewish Manifesto earlier this year and has been encouraging those standing for election next month to sign up to what it called its Ten Commitments.
Key issues for British Jews highlighted in the document included pledges to tackle antisemitism, protect religious freedoms, and support Israel.
The JC understands the Board sent the document to around 1,885 candidates across the country.
So far 135 replies have been received. Of those, around 55 have agreed committed to all of the policy requests. Another quarter – around 34 candidates – have said they would back some of the policies, but not all.
The Board has not specified which pledges those candidates have agreed to.
Board chief executive Gillian Merron said: “A good proportion of candidates have expressed their willingness to support all or some of our policy asks in the Jewish Manifesto which shows the impact we have had in our campaign.
“There is more to do. In the final weeks of the election campaign we need as many people as possible to ask their candidates to support the Jewish Manifesto and sign up to the Ten Commitments.”
A Board source said the majority of candidates pledging to back all the policy requests had been in constituencies with a high percentage of Jewish voters, while those standing in areas with little or no Jewish community had shown less interest.
