Board of Deputies president tells Iran protesters: ‘We are with you’
Also speaking at BOD's plenary were HDMT chair, former Home Secretary Sir Sajid Javid and UJS president Louis Danker
Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg has pledged his support for demonstrators who have been protesting against the Iranian regime for nearly four weeks.
Speaking at the Board’s plenary meeting on Sunday, Rosenberg said: “Many of us have been overwhelmed by the bravery of the protesters facing down a really oppressive regime, calling for their freedom. We’ve seen what the Iranian regime has done to its own country but more widely in the region and around the world. So we say to those protesters, ‘We are with you’.”
He then repeated the message in Farsi.
Thousands of protesters are believed to have been massacred by the Ayatollah regime last week, with Iranian authorities imposing an internet blackout which is widely believed to have been intended to hide the true scale of the brutal repression. Anti-regime protests in the UK have been held regularly outside the Iranian embassy in London.
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, the Board’s plenary was also addressed by HMDT chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman and its chair, former Home Secretary Sir Sajid Javid.
In his first public speech to the Jewish community since taking up the key role, Sir Sajid said: “Our job at the HMDT is more important and HMD is more important than ever. It’s not just about remembering those who are no longer with us but it’s about educating the living about the Holocaust and about the centuries of persecution of Jews and where this led.
He added: “The number of schools marking HMD has fallen by 60 per cent. We have to deal with this head on. One of my missions is to get this number back to previous levels and even beyond that. Educating the next generation is perhaps the most important thing we do.”
UJS president Louis Danker also spoke to the assembled deputies, giving a ‘State of the Union’ address about the situation on campus. He said: “Jewish students are engaging in UJS work in higher numbers than ever before, with more pride than ever before and with more resilience than ever before.
“It’s time to bring an end to two years of Jewish life on campus being defined by the hate that we face. My mission as UJS president is to empower Jewish students to regain our agency and to write our own Jewish student story.”
During the meeting, Deputies voted to admit two new organisations – the Jewish Volunteer Network and the Cambridge Jewish Residents Association, continuing the recent growth of the Board of Deputies and bringing the number of Board of Deputies constituencies up to 193.
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