Phil Rosenberg confirms bid for second term as Board President

Phil Rosenberg confirmed his intention to stand for a second term as Board of Deputies president at a plenary meeting where a small, anonymous group of Deputies attempted to undermine his authority—a move that was widely condemned.

Rosenberg was roundly applauded as he told Sunday’s Board meeting that he “will be putting himself forward to serve a second term.”

He told Deputies he was “proud” of his record as President during the past two years, at a time of “considerable anguish for the community.”

Ahead of the monthly meeting, an anonymous email was sent to all Deputies with a list of nine written questions it claimed Rosenberg had failed to answer before the meeting.

Many of the questions included unsubstantiated allegations around conflicts of interest and referred to Rosenberg’s ongoing attempt to turn his role into a paid one through a series of legal steps.

In an updated list of written answers sent to Deputies, Rosenberg addressed all the questions. Jewish News understands staff absences over the summer holiday period had led to some delays in answers being provided.

At Sunday’s meeting, Deputies lined up to condemn the circulation of an anonymous email in an attempt to discredit Rosenberg.

Jeremy Havardi, the Deputy for UK Lawyers For Israel, noted: “While I am politically a Conservative, and Rosenberg is a former Labour councillor, the President has done an outstanding job in the role and has managed to unite the community.”

Former vice-president Amanda Bowman also spoke out to condemn the nature of the anonymous attack on Rosenberg.

Jerry Lewis, the Deputy for Hampstead Synagogue, echoed this sentiment, adding: “This Board does not do anonymous. The nine should identify themselves – or clear out.”

In a written answer, Rosenberg confirmed discussions about paying the President in future through a stipend—a move that would require approval by Deputies through a vote and prompted a series of questions at Sunday’s meeting.

Rosenberg told Deputies: “Our Honorary Officers are considering how to make the presidency more accessible to a wider range of people.

“We want the best candidates from across the community and are concerned that the current demands of the role mean that it is accessible only to those who have sufficient personal wealth to either retire or take an effective multi-year sabbatical from their job.”

He argued that the role, which has been unpaid since the organisation was founded in 1760, has become “effectively a full-time – or more than full-time – post” in the modern age. Rosenberg said: “Personally, I am currently just-about managing with the occasional pieces of consultancy work, drawing on savings, and support (financial, emotional, and, in gifts of time) from family and friends.”

Rosenberg rejected claims that he had proposed a president’s salary of up to £150,000, and told Deputies that if the move went ahead, any payment would have to be approved by an independent official body.

Speaking on Sunday, Rosenberg also condemned efforts to “the far-left” to both suggest the Board represented the interests of the state of Israel, while there were also attempts by the “far-right” to falsely suggest the communal organisations was “leftist”.

Rosenberg also told Deputies how the Board had made strong representations to the government over the forthcoming sanctions against Israel over West Bank trade.

But he also noted that since the meeting with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, there had been a series of inflammatory statements from Benjamin Netanyahu about the UK and on the Palestinians from far-right ministers in his coalition.

These had not helped the Board’s attempt to persuade the government to delay sanctions until after the Israeli election.

The meeting also saw Rosenberg reject calls to take action against Deputies who were members of the Yachad organisation for their support of a proposed UK ban on trade with West Bank settlements.

Paul Hart, Deputy for Mosaic Liberal Synagogue in Stanmore, asked whether the Board would be taking action against “those board members of Yachad who wrote to the government asking for sanctions on Israel over the so-called West Bank settler violence.”

Rosenberg responded: “We cannot achieve that if our attitude to political diversity in our community is to punish it.”

He added: “We aspire to make the Board a place where British Jews can come together, regardless of politics or religious affiliation. Our only principled boundaries will be with those who express hatred towards other groups, oppose the continued existence of Israel.”

Jewish News has learned that the issue of turning the President’s role into a paid one was previously discussed with lawyers in 2021.  Legal papers seen by those newspaper confirm the drafting of clauses for new constitutional documents.

These plans were put to Deputies on Sunday February 21, 2021, but the proposals did not move forwards at the time.