JLC chief on at least £170,000 salary

The chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council earns at least £170,000, and perhaps as much as £179,999, annual accounts have revealed.

Ex-lawyer Simon Johnson’s salary, shown as a range, makes up almost half the Salaries of the three most senior figures in the organisation.

The total salary bill is just over £1m.

The JLC said it has a policy to pay “appropriate salaries consistent with the market in order to attract and retain the best talent”.

The strategic umbrella body this year welcomed an entirely new External Affairs team of three, headed by director Bernard Hughes.

The team has said it will “build a new cadre of activists and work to counter the challenges that the community faces from BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), de-legitimisation, anti-Semitism and security”.

In recent months, JLC has worked with other communal groups to set up Local Government Friends of Israel, sending three delegations of local councillors to Israel, and set up a group which “facilitated over 150 significant figures from the world of art and culture to write to The Guardian to oppose cultural boycotts of Israel”.