‘Moderate your tone,’ deputy who made racist remarks is told

A representative on the Board of Deputies must “moderate” his language and “not repeat” racist social media posts following an investigation.

Peter Baum, who sits on the Board for Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation (SWHC), was investigated in January over  a series of 16 tweets about black people and Palestinians. He appeared to call Desmond Tutu a “black coward”, Palestinians “Nazis” and their supporters “human excrement”, which appear to break the organisation’s code of conduct.

In a decision, following an investigation by the Board, it said Baum’s tweets contained “a high degree of abuse about Palestinians and others” and caused “repetitional damage”.

It also said Gabriel Kanter-Webber, who provided the evidence of tweets to Jewish News and filed the formal complaint, “did the Board a disservice” because “without his intervention there was little reason to believe that a connection between Mr Baum’s views and the Board would have come to light”.

Baum was “instructed to moderate his language so he is not the subject of further complaints”, with the Board adding that since the revelations came to light, “there is direct reputational risk” if he repeated misdemeanours.

Saying he “should not repeat his views on other social media”, the Board reminded him that “his views… carry an association” with them, ”whether or not he intends this to be the case.” The panel said repeating offences will “result in much stronger outcomes”.