OPINION: We called out far-left Jews as fringe. We must do the same to the far-right

Last week, Sir Mick Davis delivered a powerful warning to British Jewry: “We can carry on shuffling to the edge of the cliff in silence. Or we can speak plainly, act bravely.” He was talking about Israel and the diaspora’s role in defending liberal democratic values, but his words resonate just as strongly here in the UK. Because the truth is that the great, often-silent majority of British Jews – socially liberal, politically centrist, instinctively moderate – must now find their voice again.

For decades, British Jews have placed their trust not in ideology but in the political centre. At every election of the past quarter-century, our community has voted for whoever best embodied moderation and responsibility. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and now Keir Starmer all, in their time, commanded the largest share of the Jewish vote. The names and parties change; the pattern does not.

I write this as someone firmly on the Labour centre-left, but with no illusions that most British Jews share my political tribe habitually. Most don’t, and we have to earn these votes and that’s fine. What unites the majority of our community isn’t a party allegiance but a temperament – pragmatic, moderate and decent. We care less about ideology than about who can govern responsibly and uphold the liberal, democratic values that make this country feel safe for us.

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That centrism – or liberalism – extends far beyond Westminster. When Survation polled British Jews after the 2016 referendum, two-thirds said they had voted to remain in the EU — one of the highest Remain shares of any demographic group. That wasn’t just about economics; it reflected a belief in internationalism, pluralism and the liberal post-war order that has kept minorities like ours safe and confident.

The same instincts appear in our social values. While UK-specific data are limited, Pew’s research into American Jews shows overwhelming support for same-sex marriage, gender equality and multiculturalism – views that closely mirror the lived reality of British Jewish life. Of all diaspora communities, it is the UK that shares most similarity to our US cousins. It’s telling that the UK’s Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, to his credit, is regarded as one of the most liberal Orthodox leaders in the world on issues of sexuality. His efforts to promote dignity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ Jews, including his 2018 guidance for Orthodox schools, have made Britain’s Orthodox community a model of compassion and progress. It is no coincidence that British Jewry, across denominations, sits ahead of many other Jewish communities globally on questions of equality and inclusion. Perhaps we are even more liberal than our American friends considering that unlike the Reform and Conservative dominated American Jewry, we are institutionally led by Modern Orthodoxy.

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Even on Israel, often cast as a dividing line, British Jews are more united in moderation than outsiders, and many insiders, assume. According to JPR research, the majority consistently remain deeply supportive of Israel’s existence and security but are increasingly uneasy with the direction of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Most believe in a two-state solution and want to see Israel remain both Jewish and democratic – the twin ideals at the heart of its founding.

But alongside that quiet, confident liberalism, something more troubling is emerging. Over the past few years, a small but vocal minority within our community has drifted toward the populist right – domestically and on Israel. You see it online, where figures who once stood far outside communal life – including the likes of Tommy Robinson – now find a sympathetic hearing among some Jews angry at antisemitism and attacks on Israel. You hear it in the language of grievance and conspiracy, in the willingness to excuse racism and authoritarianism so long as it presents itself as “pro-Jewish” or “pro-Israel.”

When Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister, Amichai Chikli, invited Tommy Robinson to visit Israel earlier this year, it should have been a moment of unanimity. Every communal organisation – from the Board of Deputies to the Chief Rabbi – should have demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu sack him. Robinson is a criminal who has made a career out of stoking hatred and division in Britain. For him to be welcomed by a member of Israel’s government was a moral disgrace. That it passed with only muted protest is a sign of how dulled our moral reflexes have become.

The same applies closer to home. When Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin MP complained she was “sick of seeing black and brown faces on TV adverts,” it revealed the ugly undercurrent beneath the party’s glossy “anti-woke” populism. For British Jews to look at that and think, “At least they like us,” is to forget our own history. That remark is no different in spirit from the mutterings once heard in golf clubs in the 1970s about “too many Jews joining.” Reform UK may try to wrap itself in the language of defending Jews, but ultimately its rhetoric flows from the same poisoned well as those bigots on the putting green. Reform came a very strong second in a council by election in Hendon last week – an impossible result without strong Jewish community support – in this I am happy that the Conservatives held this seat.

Let’s be clear: this remains a minority phenomenon. But its impact is magnified by the silence of the majority in the centre and its flanks. When decent, liberal voices retreat from public debate, they create space for the loudest and most extreme to define who we are. And that responsibility does not fall only on communal leaders or organisations – it falls on all of us individualy. Every Jew who hears casual intolerance around a Friday-night dinner table, who sees conspiratorial nonsense circulating on WhatsApp groups, or who scrolls past bigotry on social media without challenging it, is part of the same moral landscape. The health of our community depends not only on the statements made by institutions but on the conversations we have with each other.

Sir Mick Davis captured this perfectly in his recent speech. He called on Jewish institutions to reclaim the moral centre: “Every major Jewish organisation should publicly articulate its commitment to liberal democracy, to equality and to peace. Your silence is not neutrality; it is complicity.” That line should ring in our ears. Silence or politeness – however well-intentioned – allows others to define who speaks for us.

For years, mainstream British Jews have been clear that the Jewish far left does not represent us. We confronted and continue to confront antisemitism in progressive spaces, called out extremism disguised as justice, and insisted that our values of moderation and inclusion were non-negotiable. We now need to apply that same principle to our own right flank. Jews who support Tommy Robinson or extremists in Israel do our community as much of a disservice as Jews in Jewish Voice for Labour. Both distort our values, both damage our credibility, and both claim to speak for a mainstream that clearly reject them in large numbers – which can be evidenced.

To defend our liberal democratic values is not to be naïve. It is to recognise that British Jews have thrived precisely because this country – at its best – is a centrist, liberal democracy. The rule of law, pluralism, fairness and mutual respect are not optional; they are the foundations of our security. When populists seek to undermine those foundations (at times helped by failing institutions of the state), whether on the right or the left, our community has a moral duty, and self interest, to resist.

Sir Mick spoke of a “triangle” that must bind Israel and the diaspora alike: liberal democracy, societal fairness, and secure peace. That triangle also describes the British Jewish mainstream. We believe in open societies, in decency over dogma, in the possibility of coexistence. Those convictions have made our community strong.

But belief alone is not enough. We must speak – clearly, publicly, and confidently – for the liberal centre, left and right, that most of us sit in. That means rejecting the false comfort of populism, naming intolerance even when it comes from our own, and reasserting the values that define who we are.

The Jewish majority in Britain remains what it has long been: socially liberal, politically centrist, morally grounded. It is time we said so – loudly.