Lord Mann honoured by American Jewish Committee at Tel Aviv conference

Lord John Mann has been honoured for his work exposing and confronting antisemitism by the American Jewish Committee at their global forum in Tel Aviv.

The UK government’s independent adviser on antisemitism was named amongst envoys deemed to have shown “exemplary leadership and moral courage” in fighting anti-Jewish racism.

Holly Huffnagle,  the AJC’s US director for combating antisemitism, introduced Lord Mann and the others honoured at the AJC Global Forum saying: “These are dedicated individuals who have tirelessly devoted themselves to exposing and confronting antisemitismaround the world. And we see success. These envoys have shown how we can make progress when we refuse to back down.”

Lord Mann later told Jewish News the award was “a recognition of all the constructive work done by many people, not least across the universities and in sport.”

Others to be honoured alongside former Labour MP Mann included Deborah Lipstadt, US President Joe Biden’s envoy and Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany.

AJC is a global advocacy organisation for Jews across the globe with a headquarters in New York City and offices across the US and overseas.

Israel’s leader of the opposition Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog were among the speakers at the three day long forum.

Mann had stood down as MP for Bassetlaw ahead of the 2019 election. He was given a peerage under prime minister Theresa May, and made the first full time independent adviser on antisemitism.

He had previously been an outspoken critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism in Labour.

In his new role Mann has continued to condemn and expose antisemitism both on the left and right. His continued work with the Antisemitism Policy Trust was also groundbreaking.