We’re largely Zionists – but that doesn’t stop us rowing over Israel - The Jewish Chronicle

Any shul-goer can testify to the adage “Two Jews, three opinions”. Being a broad church is one thing – but try being a broad synagogue.

After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, British Jews turned inwards.

They leaned on Jewish friends, gave to Jewish charities and involved themselves in communal organisations in record numbers, according to a report published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) in October 2024. Anecdotally, synagogue attendance rose when the war began. More Jews in shul meant more voices, more opinions – and, inevitably, more arguments.

With a menagerie of views in most minyans, some rows have left communities fractured. In Leicester, a November 2023 dispute at Neve Shalom Liberal Synagogue over an Israeli flag and a “Bring Them Home” banner led to a walkout. In such a small shul, a handful of departures left a mark. For Victor Kaufman, who was bar mitzvahed and married in the shul, the episode left him “Jewishly homeless in Leicester” and, combined with rising anti-Israel sentiment in the city, caused deep distress.

Israel supporters gather for a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London on January 14, 2024, to show support for the bereaved families, families of hostages, soldiers and the people of Israel. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

In Leeds, the Sinai Reform Synagogue faced a similar debate in May 2024. A motion to display an Israeli flag in the foyer was put to a vote – and lost. The shul had never flown a flag, Israeli or British, and wasn’t about to start. “We are not a flag-flying community, we’re not nationalistic,” lifelong member Simon Marcus told the JC.

Neither the Leicester nor the Leeds community is disengaged from Israel. Both have prayed for the hostages and affirmed their connection to the Jewish state with social and religious activities. But are these disputes exceptions, or part of a bigger shift?

The data suggest there has been an increase in the diaspora’s connection to Israel since October 7, although most UK Jews disagree with senior Israeli politicians. JPR’s report, from a July 2024 survey of 4,500 adult British Jews, found just 12 per cent approved of Benjamin Netanyahu, and 5 per cent of his far-right colleagues Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

In comparison, 40 per cent approved of opposition leader Yair Lapid.

Irrespective of political differences, UK Jews have rallied together in the campaign to bring the hostages home. While in Israel the issue has sparked division – with hostage families at the centre of heated debates in the Knesset and mass protests – in Britain, the campaign has been a unifying force. Synagogues have incorporated prayers for the hostages and more than 100 shuls joined the Board of Deputies’ “adopt a hostage” initiative.

Sociologist and Leo Baeck College lecturer Keith Kahn-Harris mapped out growing fractures on Israel in the diaspora in his 2014 book Uncivil War. More than a decade later, does he think those divisions have deepened? Not exactly.

“The old thing that you should never criticise Israel publicly had broken down [before the war], and there was an element of returning to that with the hostages,” he said. “But fundamental beliefs on Israel haven’t shifted in the abstract since October 7, and the community’s centre of gravity remains broadly Zionist,” he added, reflecting on the JPR data, where he is a research fellow.

A person holds a placard reading 'Jews against genocide' during a protest march in central London, during a National Day of Action calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, on April 13, 2024. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

In Scotland, the division between supporting the hostages and the Israeli government played out last June, when two Orthodox shuls invited hostage families to address their congregants, and Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely planned an appearance. The prospect of Hotovely’s visit sparked criticism from some members of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation and Glasgow’s Garnethill United Synagogue, who oppose the Israeli government.

The visit was scrapped following an open letter from more than 70 Scottish Jews branding Hotovely “a far-right extremist” and insisting that her “values and politics have no place in our community”. Yet, for now, dissenting voices in Jewish communities remain a minority. At Garnethill, a member told the JC she quietly leaves during the prayer for the State of Israel. “People have got used to it. I feel accepted to a degree.”

A protester holds a placard at a gathering in Belgrave Square, calling for a "Ceasefire Now", at a demonstration organised by Jewish Bloc, Jews For Palestine in central London on November 11, 2023, ahead of a 'National March For Palestine'. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

The shul’s chair, Susan Siegel, is clear: the member is an outlier. “We don’t let one person’s feelings dictate things when the majority of Glasgow’s Jews are Zionists,” she said. “We respect free speech and members’ right to think and say what they want,” Siegel added.

That’s why the dissenting member – who identifies as non- or post-Zionist and is part of left-wing group Na’amod – still attends services. She avoided the building for months after October 7, sensitive that her views on the war might upset some congregants, and now she tries to “ignore the politics” in the synagogue.

Simon Marcus at Leeds Sinai said people try to do the same in his Liberal shul. Despite a fiery AGM where a motion to display the Israeli flag was voted down, Marcus remains optimistic. “It got heated, but people were civil. And notably, both sides still come to services.”

This month it emerged that Sinai’s outgoing leader, cantor Rachel Weston, hosted a fundraiser for Palestine Action just eight weeks after the Hamas atrocities and six months before she took up the role at Sinai.

Members of the community and supporters gather at St John's Wood United Synagogue in north London, on April 7, 2024, for a "Time is Running Out" event to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages still held in Gaza. (Photo: Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

For many shul leaders, it is easier to keep politics off the bimah. St Albans rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet, who is also director of strategy for Masorti Judaism, said: “There is very little to be gained from rabbis turning their communities into campaigning organisations. We should not confuse communal life with activism.”

Zagoria-Moffet reckons the Masorti movement, which started as a protest against the United Synagogue following the Jacobs Affair, is well placed to deal with tensions because it is intentionally pluralistic.

However, the movement was faced with difficulties when trainee rabbi Rabbi Lara Haft Yom-Tov at its flagship New North London Synagogue wrote in a “Justice-orientated” Haggadah companion last year that Israeli politicians were “war criminals” who “manufactured a famine in Gaza”. At least 130 members of the Masorti synagogue signed a letter calling for Rabbi Lara Haft Yom-Tov to resign and several families cancelled their membership. However, others joined.

Zagoria-Moffet said that he has anti- or non-Zionist members. “It has been interesting to try and make them feel that [anti-Zionism] does not represent our community, and they should not expect the community as a whole to give space to that. It does not mean that they are excluded, it just means they are a minority.”

Some St Albans members recently objected to a global Masorti webinar with Israeli politician Benny Gantz and started a petition to cancel the shul’s involvement.

While Zagoria-Moffet understands people have a variety of views, he rails against cancel culture. “The impulse to de-platform people is part of the problem. Do not alienate yourself from the conversation because you’re worried that someone might say something you don’t like, be a part of it, ask the difficult questions,” he said.

Ultimately, the Masorti rabbi thinks most of his members are not focused on Israel, but Jewish life in Hertfordshire, “providing a Jewish community that feels like home, and where politics is not the primary focus of the conversation”.

Members of the community gather outside BBC Broadcasting House to demonstrate against the BBC's ongoing refusal to label Hamas as terrorists. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)Getty Images

At the Reform synagogue in Brighton, staunch Zionist Rabbi Dr Andrea Zanardo said new members from across southern England have joined his community since the start of the war in search of a shul that aligns with their Zionism. However, he still maintains a “good” relationship with non-Zionist members. “They know where I stand on a Jewish democratic state, and my door is always open,” he said.

His pro-Israel stance has made him a target for some campaigners.

“In the Reform movement, not everyone sees eye-to-eye, and because of that, I’ve become unpopular.

“The war has only intensified the reality that rabbis are on the front line when they should be focused on supporting their communities. People go to shul because they want a break from the tension.”

He’s working to ensure that the tension does not spill into congregational life and, like all of the rabbis the JC spoke to, he wants to ensure that all Jews, and all their opinions, are welcome in shul.

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