Jewish Community Leaders Meet with Prime Minister
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Movement Chair Jenny Pizer was part of a delegation of British Jewish community leaders led by Board of Deputies President Vivian Wineman which met with the Prime Minister on Monday 16th January.
The working meeting with David Cameron was described as 'very positive and highly constructive'. The delegation from the community was arranged and coordinated by the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and included heads of a number of communal organisations.
The meeting, which took place at 10 Downing Street, covered a wide range of topics. The community delegation raised issues ranging from Iran, antisemitism and extremism on campus to the Big Society, shechitah, social care provision and the impact of equalities legislation. The Prime Minister used the meeting to seek the delegation’s perspective on the Middle East peace process. The delegation took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for provision of school security funding and for his Government’s support in delivering change on universal jurisdiction whilst noting that they would be carefully monitoring its implementation.
The Prime Minister praised the various philanthropic and charitable activities that the Jewish community carry out and noted that this had been a major driver in his own thinking around the Big Society, specifically acknowledging the JLC’s policy paper on the Big Society. The Prime Minister welcomed the fact that efforts to tackle extremism on campuses had had some success and listened to the delegation's concerns about the 'unhelpful position' of the UCU.
Vivian Wineman, President of the Board of Deputies and Chair of the JLC Council of Membership said: "We are grateful to the Prime Minister for his engagement with the community on a number of substantive concerns. We are particularly pleased to have raised our concerns around social care policy and some of the unintended consequences of the Equalities Act."
Commenting on the discussions, Mick Davis, Chairman of the Trustees of the JLC said: "The Prime Minister fully understood and responded to communal concerns on the wide array of issued that we raised. I have no doubt that the Prime Minister also understood our position that the UK should play a constructive role in helping to support negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians by acting in a fair, balanced and even-handed manner."
The full delegation comprised a number of Trustees of the JLC who are also leaders of major communal organisations represented on the Council, together with the senior honorary officers of the Board of Deputies of British Jews: Vivian Wineman, Mick Davis, Sir Trevor Chinn CVO, Steven Lewis, James Libson, Stephen Pack, Jenny Pizer, Gerald Ronson CBE, Poju Zabludowicz, Jonathan Arkush and Jeremy Newmark.
Photograph ©The Jewish Leadership Council 2012
Not to be reproduced without permission of the Jewish Leadership Council
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