Watch the former Board of Deputies president call for Jeremy Corbyn to be ‘sacrificed’

Former president of the Board of Deputies


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A former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) has called for Jeremy Corbyn to be ‘sacrificed’.

“Sacrifice him”

Speaking at the BoD meeting on 19 May, Lionel Kopelowitz said:

The word Corbyn is a very suitable one for him, after Corbyn in Hebrew is ‘korban’, which is a sacrifice. And I think we should sacrifice him for all the trouble that he has caused.

His comment forced current BoD president Marie Van Der Zyl to say:

I’d just like to remind you that you are being live streamed

“Could incite hate against Jeremy Corbyn”

In response, co-chair of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) Jenny Manson told The Canary:

It is as if in some circles there is an open season for, even an almost gleeful enjoyment in, using threatening language that could incite hate against Jeremy Corbyn. At the extreme it could be dangerous: one thinks for example of the horrific murder of Jo Cox.

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JVL will pass this on to the Leader’s office making the point that they may want to consider reporting the incident to the police.

Manson also said:

This speech by Lionel Kopelowitz is abhorrent and quite inappropriate for a Senior Past President of the BOD. The current President Marie Van Der Zyl thought it necessary to remind those present that the Board’s session was being live-streamed (she was clearly concerned about his intemperate comments). But neither she nor any other of the approaching 100 Deputies present apparently saw fit to distance themselves from these remarks. Nor did Mark Regev, Israeli Ambassador who was present and a member of the platform party.

Speaking to The Canary, the Emeritus Professor of Operational Research at the London School of Economics, Jonathan Rosenhead, added:

Human sacrifice is defined as ‘the act of killing one or more humans, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a ritual.’ What sort of god does the BoD’s Senior Past President wish to appease?

The Canary contacted the Board of Deputies, but had received no response at the time of publication.

Featured image via Twitter – James Wright

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  • Show Comments

    1. Exactly what trouble has Corbyn caused might I ask. I would say this is discrimination of the same type as the Israeli Government use in Palestine – i.e. the only solution is Genocide – stifle the voice of dissent.

      Corbyn is a career Politician who is against any form of Discrimination. May be the Deputy here should himself be sacrificed?

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    2. Ah Lionel Kopelowitz. I think you should do another article on this racist scumbag.

      He was President of the Board of Deputies when Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defence League (a Jewish neo-Nazi group outlawed as a ‘terrorist’ group in the USA). Even Israel banned Kach, the Party that Kahane represented in the Knesset.

      That did not stop Kopelowitz paying tribute to Kahane as a good Jew when he died. You will have to look up the exact quotes but Kopelowitz was of the extreme Right, even cf to his successors.

      this is the only thing I can dig up but Kopelowitz was subject to considerable criticism at the time for his warm tribute to Kahane

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      2. Warm tribute? Where?

        Jewish leaders across the political spectrum condemned the murder, even as they distanced themselves from his ideology. Teddy Kollek, mayor of Jerusalem, said: “I detested his policies, but his murder was abhorrent,” while the then president of the Board of Deputies, Dr Lionel Kopelowitz, said: “I never shared his views but I deplore the fact that he should have been gunned down.”

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    5. Evidently Mr Kopelowitz believes that belieiving that Palestinians are human beings too is sufficient reason to be murdered; if he is typical of his people then they have learned nothing from their experiences in Hitler’s camps; they are behaving exactly like the Nazis in trying to exterminate the Palestinian people; they are the Nazis now.

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