Deputy resigns after suspension threat over Yachad letter

A member of the Board of Deputies has resigned after being threatened with a second suspension, this time for signing a Yachad letter calling for a settlement trade ban. Philip Goldenberg, who represents North-West Surrey Reform Synagogue, was told he would face a six-month ban after a disciplinary process unless he apologised for having signed the letter as a member of the Board of Deputies. Last year, he served a six-month suspension over his role in a letter sent by 36 deputies to the Financial Times which was highly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

But Goldenberg, a solicitor, who was planning to retire at the end of this year’s triennial in May, has decided to go early. In a statement, the Board said it “recognises the diversity of opinion in our community and believes in providing a platform for different opinions on the key issues facing our community. “However, we draw the line at misrepresentation of the views of individual deputies as the views of our organisation as a whole.”

It added: “Following the findings of an independent disciplinary panel, we have therefore been left with no choice but to apply a sanction again in this case. “That the deputy has chosen to resign instead is a matter for them. We will work with their constituency to ensure its voice remains properly represented on the Board of Deputies.” But in an email to Board chief executive Michael Wegier, Goldenberg ridiculed the sanction, describing the disciplinary procedure as a “kangaroo court”.

“The heinous crime in relation to which bell, book and candle have now been applied to me was to co-sign a public letter from Yachad to the government, and add to my signature a statement that I was a member of the Board of Deputies. “The idea that this statement of fact constituted a representation that I was speaking on behalf of the Board as a whole is so ridiculous that it would be laughed out of court in any other organisation.” The Board, he said, was “effectively the UK Jewish Parliament.

If an MP says something in the public domain as an MP, nobody suggests for a moment that s/he is purporting to represent the view of the House of Commons as a whole.” He received a two-year suspension last year – later reduced to 18 months on an appeal – for what the Board’s disciplinary panel said was his part in helping to publicise the FT letter in the media. He was readmitted in December after six months after sending what the Board called a “suitable apology”.

But in his email to the CEO this week, Goldenberg denied that his action had amounted to an apology. “I did not apologise in relation to the FT Letter,” he wrote. “I expressed my regret that the Letter had not been more tightly worded, so that not even an idiot or a person of ill will could misrepresent it as having been written on behalf of the Board. “The Board chose to accept that wording as an apology, which it expressly was not.” He said he would be leaving the Board with “my head held high”, noting service to the organisation that had helped it to secure £800,000 of overdue bequest payments.

The organisation “does excellent operational work, but its governance is lamentable,” he said. “Deputies have less power than backbench MPs, and have no effective way of holding its leadership to account (apart from the nuclear weapon of a no confidence vote in the president).”