Barnet councillor sorry for ‘criticising Jew for wearing kippah’
EXCLUSIVE: 'As a Jewish person myself, I know how poor choice of language can offend', says Helene Richman, the Lib Dem's West Hendon candidate in next month's local elections.
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
A Barnet councillor has apologised for criticising a Jewish fellow candidate for wearing a kippah and calling her residents “antisemitic”.
Correspondence seen by Jewish News shows Helene Richman, the Lib Dem’s West Hendon candidate in next month’s local elections, stated that she might “lose areas because of [her] running mates”, having stated that they got a negative reception from residents due to one candidate’s “prominent skullcap”.
Believing the appearance of her running mate was off-putting to residents, she asked him “if he could tidy up by trimming his beard and not wearing [a] big and obvious kippah in non-Jewish areas – which is most of West Hendon”.
She added that her non-Chasidic running mate “doesn’t look as bad”.
According to the emails, Richman asked the Conservatives to “reconsider the extremely unwise decision to appoint […] a Chasidic Jew in West Hendon”. She went on to state that this “threatens to destroy four years of my very hard work and will lose West Hendon” as among her residents “[t]he antisemitism is real”.
Richman defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats last week after allegations about her behaviour emerged.
On Thursday Richman issued a statement of apology. She said: “As a Jewish person myself, I know how poor choice of language can offend. I am sorry for any hurt my comments may have have caused.”
Conservative Party officials claim she was deselected following two serious complaints about her language and conduct. But Richman, while refusing to comment on the specific allegations made against her, told Jewish News that “many people” had told her she had won her appeal [against the complaints].
Richman defended her views at the time by claiming: “There are loads of blacks and Indian in West Hendon. There are no ultra orthodox/Chassidic Jews.” She claimed these residents “despise the Orthodox school – they hate the school, the staff and the parents.”
Sources claim that once the Conservative Party was informed of this correspondence, steps were taken to remove her as a candidate. Reportedly it was only once she was told that she had been deselected, and a new candidate had been selected to replace her that Cllr Richman defected to the Lib Dems.
Richman had previously been criticised after telling residents in social housing that she “didn’t want to pay for [them] to live for free their whole life because you won’t get a job” and that they “should move some place cheaper”. She later apologised for those remarks.
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