Opinion
The Board works on trust and misrepresenting our community damages us all
Airing our grievances in public undermines the strength of our community
April 17, 2025 19:29
2 min read
Airing our grievances in public undermines the strength of our community
April 17, 2025 19:29The greatest strength of the Board of Deputies is its democracy. Anyone who has ever attended a plenary meeting of the organisation will know that one will hear a wide variety of political and religious views expressed. That is exactly what it should be – a place where people, of different backgrounds, denominations, geographical locations and ideological viewpoints come together to consider the key issues of the moment. These proceedings are not secret. The recordings are accessible online, as they should be, because the public airing of differences of opinion is not a threat to our community.
That ability to express opinions is important – because, among other things, it shows individual Deputies whether their viewpoints are as robust and widely shared within the community as they believe.
All our members participate, I believe, in the knowledge that whilst we have a range of religious and political beliefs, we are one people with a shared identity and shared fate, and with a shared interest in a strong representative institution that can advance our common interests and welfare as British Jews.
What this system relies on, however, is those with the honour of representing their communities and organizations as Deputies, use that status with care and responsibility.
Any individual deputy, or group of Deputies has the right to speak their mind publicly. But our community is not served by any single group misrepresenting itself, intentionally or unintentionally, as speaking for us all. Nor should any group simplify or misrepresent the views or intentions of others.
Nor is it reasonable or wise for any group within the community, however passionate or committed to their view, to expect the Board of Deputies to adopt a position that does not reflect a broard consensus within our community.
Regretfully, this week, one group of Deputies aired their views in a national publication, specifically in their capacity as Deputies, leading them to an incorrect assumption by a significant number of people in our community and beyond, that this group is putting forward the Board’s official position, which it is not.
Taking the legitimate and often painful debate within our community to the letters pages of national newspapers, and sowing confusion about the position of the community as a whole, is a short-sighted and dangerous precedent.
There is nothing to stop a similar group of Deputies putting forward a letter espousing their views to a national publication on a range of social, religious or geopolitical issues from a vastly different perspective, and seeking similar coverage. The Board of Deputies is a unique institution, with an irreplaceable capacity to serve our community, in all its diversity. Our ability to fulfil that role will not be helped by a cacophony of open letters, each signed by different sub-groups of Deputies, each implying that they speak for the community as a whole.
We need to manage our differences with greater care and protect the ability of the Board of Deputies to speak for our shared interests, at a time when we need this most.
Michael Wegier is the chief executive of the Board of Deputies.