Chief Rabbi quits as patron of inter-faith charity after newsletter row

Governance | Tania Mason | 24 Aug 2012

Great Britain’s highly respected Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has resigned his position as patron of a charity that promotes understanding between religions, after it carried news of a pro-Palestinian petition in its latest newsletter.

The Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust (WPCT) newsletter, sent to around 70 supporters last week, contained a template for a letter to MEPs opposing the European Union’s recent renewal of a trade agreement with Israel relating to pharmaceutical products.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, the European Coordination of Associations and Committees for Palestine, a non-profit group which works with Palestinian NGOs, organised an ‘action alert’ including a petition and urged WPCT supporters to sign it and write to their MEPs.

The alert reportedly claimed that the Palestinian pharmaceutical industry is a “prisoner of the Israeli system”.

Jonathan Sacks (pictured) was a patron of the charity for over ten years. When asked why he had resigned from WPCT, a spokesman from the Chief Rabbi’s office said: “When the Chief Rabbi became patron of the Trust, its objectives were a commitment to world peace, and its aim to bring together people of diverse backgrounds in order to find common ground.

“Sadly in this instance, the Trust has failed to fulfil these objectives, and it is with regret that the Chief Rabbi can no longer remain a patron.”

But the executive secretary of WPCT, Win Burton, told the Chronicle that the newsletter was not a mouthpiece for any single agenda, but a platform for expression of various opinions with a view to stimulating debate.

“We would welcome something from our members which puts a different point of view,” she said.

WPCT’s website states that the charity’s aims are to “bring together people of different cultural, political and religious backgrounds; to address European and world issues, not just from a political and economic perspective but from the point of view of values and beliefs; and to enlighten public opinion and influence those who shape policy”.

The Chief Rabbi remains a patron of over 400 charities.

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.