| File:Jewish Voice for Labour.jpg | |
| Abbreviation | JVL |
|---|---|
| Formation | 28 July 2017 |
Region served | United Kingdom |
Chair | Jenny Manson |
Secretary | Glyn Secker |
Treasurer | Richard Kuper |
Co-Chair | Leah Levine |
Key people | Membership Officer: Mike Cushman Media Officer: Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi Information Officer: Jonathan Rosenhead |
| Website | www |
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is an organisation for Jewish Labour Party members.
Jewish Voice for Labour's founding statement advocated "making the Labour Party an open, democratic and inclusive party, encouraging all ethnic groups and cultures to join and participate freely", to support a commitment "to strengthen the party in its opposition to all forms of racism, including antisemitism",[1] and "does not make promoting the centrality of Israel to Jewish life a condition of membership".[2]
The organisation admits full membership only to Labour Party members who identify as Jewish. By contrast Jewish Labour Movement accepts both non-Jewish and non-Labour Party members.[3][4] In 2017, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, an executive board member of Jewish Voice for Labour, said the organisation's "longer term aim" could be to affiliate to the Labour.[5]
In September 2017, the group was officially launched on the second day of the annual national conference at the Brighton Centre in Brighton.[3]
Jenny Manson, an activist in Jews for Justice for Palestinians and a former Labour councillor, was elected chair before the organisation's formal foundation.[4] While Manson has said the organisation is "not anti-Zionist", she also told The Jewish Chronicle that it is an alternative to the Jewish Labour Movement for Jewish Labour members, describing the Jewish Labour Movement as having a "profoundly Zionist orientation",[1][4] Jewish Voice for Labour's information officer, Jonathan Rosenhead shares the later opinion.[3] The organisation opposes "attempts to widen the definition of antisemitism beyond its meaning of hostility towards, or discrimination against, Jews as Jews", such as the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance which was formally accepted by the Labour Party in 2017, and which Rosenhead sees as intentionally "vague" allowing for "the protection of Israel" via "a side door" and thus "encouraging the presumption that criticism of Israel is likely to be antisemitic".[3][4] The rule change, which was supported by Jeremy Corbyn, they see as an "anti-democratic restriction on political debate".[5]
Jewish Voice for Labour has objected to "unjustified allegations of antisemitism" which are "used to undermine Jeremy Corbyn's leadership".[6] In March 2018, it organised a smaller counter-demonstration, attended by around 30 people, according to The Independent.[7] at a protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party, held in Parliament Square, London.[8] The organisation has defended individuals such as former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone who has been suspended from party membership for bringing the party into disrepute. "These actions by Ken were not offensive, nor anti-semitic in any way", according to Manson.[5]
Jewish Voice for Labour was reported by The Times of Israel to be closely linked to Free Speech on Israel (FSOI) which is explicitly non-Zionist, founded in 2016 to "counter the manufactured moral panic over a supposed epidemic of anti-Semitism in the UK" and oppose the notion that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. However, Wimborne-Idrissi has rejected this accusation saying they are "two separate organizations with different aims and objectives."[5]