Jews against the Board of Deputies

I've just had this article sent to me. It appears on the Something Jewish website and it's a calculated and well overdue slap in the collective face of the Board of Deputies of British Jews over their (mis)handling of the Ken (concentration camp guard) Livingstone saga. Headed "Board should shut up" (a double entendre if ever there was one) the article berates the Board for lacking perspective over the Livingstone "issue" and it dares to suggest that the Board may not be as democratically representative as is made out.

So the Board of Deputies of British Jews finally got what they wanted, an appointment for London Mayor Ken
Livingstone with the Standards Board for England.

The so-called "representative body of British Jewish community" took exception when London's colourful and outspoken Mayor in February likened a reporter from the Evening Standard newspaper with that of a Nazi concentration camp guard despite letting the Mayor know he was a member of the tribe.

It's curious that the article understates Ken's previous run-ins with the Board over Israel, gay rights and (I think) Jewish representation. I think the old GLC gave a grant to the Jewish Socialist Group and it rubbed the Board up the wrong way. They do mention it but almost in passing.

you can't accuse him of hating Jews in London or indeed anywhere else. His views on Israel and Palestine are another issue, but jumping on Livingstone as a way to knock him down because of what he has said about Israel is not the right way to go about things.

Maybe the Board has something against the Mayor and this is the first time in Livingstone's political life that they can get back at him?

It's time the Board started to come clean about its motives and why it does what it does.

If only someone could take the Board to a standards authority for their lack of standards and care shown to the Jewish community over the years in not addressing real issues of concern and importance to the Jewish community in London and across Britain.

That last line reminds me of something I wrote about the Board over a year ago.