Board: Ex-EDL leader ‘could never be a partner’ due to ‘anti-Muslim provocation’

The Board of Deputies has distanced itself from a far-right figure, after he reportedly spoke at a Jewish community event in Manchester.

Former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson claimed he had participated in a “talk with members of Manchester’s Jewish community” for the Amelia-Mae Foundation, which supports Neuroblastoma sufferers.

Following his claim, left-wing group ‘Jewish Voice’ launched an anti-Islamaphobia campaign “to fight Tommy Robinson and the Far-Right”.

When asked by members of Jewish Voice if Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is “a friend of the Jewish community”, the Board said: “Tommy Robinson’s record of anti-Muslim provocation means that he could never be a partner of a respectable or mainstream Jewish organisation”.

Co-founders of Jewish Voice Ari Moshe and Shlomo Anker told Jewish News: “Tommy has been attempting to co-opt the Jewish community, trying to play on anti-Semitism among the Muslim community to cause tension between the two communities.”

They add, that he is “using his loose ties with an American rabbi and some fringe right wing extremist Jews to claim to be a strong supporter of the Jewish community.”