The editor of the charity newsletter that prompted the UK’s Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks to resign as patron of the charity, has admitted that her way of selecting content for inclusion in the newsletter has been too “amateur and random”.
Lord Sacks (pictured) quit as patron of the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust (WPCT) earlier this month in protest at the inclusion in the newsletter of an item by the Quaker House in Brussels which opposed the recent renewal of an EU-Israel agreement on trade in pharmaceuticals.
The article included a template letter for Quaker House supporters to sign and send to their MEPs.
While the article carried no endorsement from WPCT – a charity which promotes inter-faith dialogue to support peace, world order and the rule of law - Lord Sacks, who had been a patron for ten years, was moved to resign his post. He claimed that by publishing the article, the charity had failed to meet its objectives of a commitment to world peace, and bringing together people of diverse backgrounds in order to find common ground.
Win Burton, the executive secretary at WPCT and the producer of the newsletter, told civilsociety.co.uk that “we all of course deeply regret the Chief Rabbi’s resignation”.
She said: “We valued his patronage highly and have so far maintained excellent relations with his office and many others in the Jewish community who are actively involved with the WPCT and contribute to the open-spirited dialogue we foster.”
However, Burton also said she did not regret sending out the newsletter with the Quaker House article in it, as “our members share our ethos of open dialogue and debate, and know that WPCT does not take a stand on anything”.
But she admitted that the incident had been a lesson and in future she would be more circumspect about what to include in the newsletter. Until now, she has merely obtained items that she thought her subscribers might be interested in, from any number of sources.
The Quaker House piece had been sent to her as part of a mailer she subscribes to in a personal capacity, and she accepted that she should have thought twice about including it in the WPCT newsletter.
“I admit that I have allowed some confusion to creep in,” Burton said. “The newsletter is extremely random and amateur and because it does not take a view on any of the issues raised, it makes no attempt to be balanced.
“This incident has been a warning to me not to be quite so random.”
WPCT chair: I am a friend of Israel
Since the original article about Lord Sacks’ decision appeared in the Jewish Chronicle, WPCT’s chair, Canon Guy Wilkinson, has written to the Chronicle complaining that its article and editorial contained “serious errors” and a “distorted account of the incident”.
He said the newsletter article had been carried “without comment” by the Trust.
“As with all the other 15 articles in that edition, there was not the slightest endorsement of any kind. This was quite simply the reporting of a matter of interest in relation to the EU,” he wrote.
He concluded: “I have been involved in Christian-Jewish dialogue and in friendships across the Jewish communities for many years and have a deep respect for the Chief Rabbi and for [patron] Sir Sigmund Sternberg. I also count myself as a friend of Israel.”
However, the office of the Chief Rabbi confirmed to civilsociety.co.uk that the Chronicle’s original article was an accurate representation of the facts.
Last week Canon Wilkinson also contacted around 40 “close colleagues” in the Jewish community to express his "pain" at the incident.
