On 11th June Ealing became the last of the London’s 32 councils to finally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism.
Quite why Ealing took so long is unclear: the Council is run by a predominantly moderate Labour administration which seemed set to adopt the definition last year. Some opposition emerged, hence the delay.
The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council were active in lobbying the council and at the end of March representatives of a number of synagogues from the area met with Julian Bell, the leader of the Council and other councillors. A number of Mosaic members live in the Borough of Ealing so along with a small group of us Rabbi Kathleen was also present. The other synagogues represented were the United and Liberal synagogues based in Ealing and West London Reform. It was good to see Rabbi Kathleen presenting the case for the IHRA definition alongside Rabbi Janet Burden from Ealing Liberal and Rabbi Vogel from Ealing United.
The meeting went well and we would like to think it helped bring about the council’s adoption of the IHRA definition.
The main opposition to this appears to have come from the Revolutionary Communist Group, who unsuccessfully petitioned the council at the start of the council meeting not to adopt the definition.
We had pointed out to Councillor Bell in March that it would be unthinkable for Ealing to be the only council in London not to adopt the IHRA. It is pleasing this did not happen and that the Mosaic community was instrumental in helping to bring this about.
