A video recorded by Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Simon Johnson which openly criticised a survey of British Jews carried out on behalf of the Campaign Against Antisemitism has now been taken offline.

The recording, which was made as part of Mr Johnson’s weekly video blog and posted on the JLC’s Facebook site, had suggested the CAA survey was unrepresentative of UK Jewish opinion, and expressed fears the statistical analysis amounted to scaremongering.

Mr Johnson’s blog was posted last Friday and sparked both positive and negative reaction until a decision was made to take the recording down.

A spokesman for the JLC confirmed: “Simon posted his weekly video blog on Friday addressing recently published statistics about antisemitism in the UK.

“The JLC’s position on the report has not changed. However, the video was removed in the interest of communal relations.”

The results of the CAA’s online questionnaire suggested one in three Jews in the UK who responded had considered emigrating due to pervading antisemitic feeling.

Following the removal of Mr Johnson’s video blog, one critic wrote on the JLC Facebook page: “On Friday 26th August JLC and its CEO published a rant attacking the work of a genuine grassroots organisation and in the process rubbishing a survey that polled the opinion of around 7% of British Jews.

“Today (Monday 28th August) JLC deleted its CEO's shameful video. With ‘leadership’ like this, who needs enemies? Would JLC care to apologise for its crass, dangerous and unrepresentative actions?”

But another senior community figure told the JC: “The JLC have clearly taken the decision that while they still remain critical of the CAA survey and the publicity that has subsequently surrounded it, they do not wish to inflame the situation any further.

“By taking the video down in the interest of communal relations, there appears to be a call for everyone to think long and hard about how they approach and deal with issues as major as antisemitism in the UK in the future.”