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It is all very well the Brighton and Hove Hebrew Congregation describing the appalling incident at Brighton’s Holocaust Memorial Day service as an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and saying that “no offence was intended”. But such PR waffle should fool no one. There was no misunderstanding. An unambiguous decision was made to bar the Reform synagogue’s rabbi from entering the prayer hall. And offence could only ever have been intended. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more disgusting insult to those congregants who wished to honour the victims of the Shoah than being told by Brighton and Hove Hebrew Congregation that they are, in effect, not proper Jews. How deeply depressing — enraging, in fact — that representatives of Brighton and Hove Hebrew Congregation should have decided that the most appropriate way to mark Holocaust Memorial Day was with a display of small-minded bigotry against fellow Jews.