After rival events announced, Jewish groups seek to unite against antisemitism
A rally and a march, organised by different Jewish groups, had been organised to take place in Central London on the same date - an hour apart
Jewish communal organisations are understood to be attempting to join up two different events aimed at combating antisemitism, which were separately announced to be taking place in central London on the afternoon of the same day.
On Monday afternoon, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) announced “Britain’s March Against Antisemitism and Extremism”, to take place in central London on Sunday 10 May at 2pm. However, shortly afterwards the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Jewish Leadership Council announced they would be holding a “Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism” rally in central London, on Sunday 10 May at 1pm, supported by both Stop the Hate and UJIA, with CST in attendance.
Jewish News understands that following the almost-simultaneous announcements, there have been efforts to fold the two events into one, with parties on both sides understanding the deeply unfortunate optics of a community apparently unable to unite in response to significant and serious acts of antisemitism.
A spokesperson from the Board of Deputies said: “From the outset, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have been working towards a unified communal event. When we learnt of the CAA event we immediately proposed a means of bringing the efforts together and have been in discussions since. We believe we have reached an agreement about how to do this and hope to be in a position to publicise this in the next day or two”.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We’re the UK’s largest campaigning charity on antisemitism. Everyone has been to our marches and rallies, and seen how we bring in all of the Jewish community’s denominations, factions – and non-Jewish allies. That has been our intention with this march.
“It is important that we show a united front. We are talking to the Board of Deputies about how to move forward and make the voice of the Jewish community heard following this unforeseen diary clash. With the community’s best interests at heart, we have suggested to them that either we merge the events or they organise a rally which we will support, and we will organise a wider march on the critical theme of de-radicalising Britain at another time in the future.”
Jewish News understands that the Board of Deputies and JLC had been organising an event when they were told by the police that a separate event was being organised by Stop the Hate. When the Board and JLC approached Stop the Hate, the latter agreed to join the event being organised by the former groups.
It is further understood that CAA were told about the Board/JLC rally – and its date – with a view to including them, but before a proper conversation was able to take place between representatives of the different groups, CAA had announced its own march – which neither the police or CST had been given prior notice of.
Jewish News believes that attempts are currently being made to enable the CAA march to set off from the Board/JLC rally, with the hope that an agreement will soon be reached.
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