Joseph Finlay

@josephfinlay

Historian of British Jews and race relations. Composer and Musical Director. Socialist and דאָיִקער. Writing on Jewish issues at www.toratalbion.org.uk

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Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 5d

Do they want people to investigate Zionist youth movements in the UK?

18:06
facebook.com
Campaign Against Antise….
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5h • B
After concerns raised by CAA and others, YHA
(England and Wales) has reportedly opened an investigation into a Palestinian Youth Movement
(PYM) summer camp which took place in the Peak District in May.
Footage from the camp appears to show children chanting anti-Zionist slogans, while attendees also took part in a lecture featuring a quotation attributed to a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organisation proscribed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.
The camp was hosted at YHA Edale, operated by YHA, which reportedly received significant funding from Sport England in the past and is a registered charity.
Responding to public backlash over the footage, a YA spokesperson reportedly said that the charity is "aware of the concerns" and is investigating
"whether any of our terms and conditions or policies may have been breached."
The charity also reportedly said that the event was a private group booking, and has distanced itself from the activities of PYM during the camp.
We welcome YHA's investigation and await the outcome.
Children should never be used as vehicles for political indoctrination.
••

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 7d

It’s a low bar if you are a Jewish communal leader. All you have to say is ‘nobody should ever appoint ex-Nazis’. Yet Phil Rosenberg can’t even manage that. On the same day his organisation launched a festival to mark the 90th anniversary of the battle of Cable St. Laughable.

The JLC issued a short statement on Wednesday to welcome Bonehill-Paine's withdrawal as a Conservative candidate, but did not address his appointment as an adviser.

However, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, told Times Radio it was "a good thing" that Bonehill-Paine would become an adviser to the culture and integration commission.

"I think it is good to use the experiences of people who have themselves been down this track to counter radicalisation in other places," said Rosenberg, who said Bonehill-Pain was
"probably the wrong fit" to be a councillor.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 8d

This is the supposedly repentant Joshua Bonehill, writing in May 2026. Are we so sure he’s changed? On of these things is not like the others. From here: www.thecrewkerneman.com/henry-nowak-...

A meritocratic state does not deny racism. It confronts racism by insisting upon equal treatment. It says that a Jewish pensioner threatened in the street, a black child racially abused at school, a white teenager falsely branded a racist, and an Asian shopkeeper targeted by thugs are all entitled to justice.
Not symbolic justice. Not justice filtered through ideology. Justice.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 13d

Here’s one

30/07/2026
cال
jewish leadership council
Diane Abbott was suspended from the Labour Party after she doubled down on remarks she had previously apologised for. Her comments downplayed the seriousness of racism against Jewish people, which is not only offensive but demonstrably absurd given recent events in the UK.
Given her lack of public contrition prior to today's announcement, the decision to reinstate Abbott's membership will be seen as an exoneration for her actions. We recognise the independence of these processes following the EHRC report into antisemitism in the Labour Party, meaning that this is not a decision taken by the Prime Minister as leader of his party. However, the Prime Minister is ultimately responsible for determining which MPs are given the Labour whip. He must explain how returning that whip to Diane Abbott is consistent with his zero tolerance approach to antisemitism.
Jewish Leadership Council statement following
Diane Abbott's readmission into the Labour Party

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 23d

Seems that Nazis have infiltrated the Nazi party

Campaign Against Antise...
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Is there a far-right infiltration into Restore Britain?
Neo-fascists, Hitler admirers and supporters of ethnic cleansing have embedded themselves in key local positions in Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain party, an investigation by The Times has claimed.
The newspaper alleges that they have installed themselves in influential roles in local Restore Britain branches across the country.
The far-right figures reportedly include individuals who have praised Hitler and used extreme racial slurs.
Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, has reportedly denounced "ethno-nationalism and neo-Nazism", and plans to root out those who espouse those ideologies from his party, according to reports.
THETIMES.COM
Inside the extreme far-right campaign to infiltrate Restore Britain
Neo-Nazis who support ethnic cleansing and ha...
D..13
27 comments

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· 27d

Why Keir Starmer’s philosemitism is bad for everyone - including the Jews. www.vashtimedia.com/toxic-legacy...

The toxic legacy of
Starmerite philosemitism
Goodbye to our biggest fan and worst enemy.

By: Joseph Finlay

So farewell Sir Keir. It's been... underwhelming.
Who could have guessed that the man who believed in nothing beyond the fact that he should be prime minister, and had no political ideology beyond a vague notion of personal service and patriotism, would not survive long in No 10. It's only surprising that he will go down in popular memory as two-year Keir rather than
one.
Despite all this, there is one thing that Keir Starmer believes in above all else: Jews.

The message of all of this is that Starmer sees his efforts to rip out "the poison of antisemitism" from the Labour party as his primary success. On its own terms, the hubris is extraordinary. There will never be antisemitism in the Labour party again, he's fixed it. Keir Hardie's antipathy.to
Jewish immigrant workers? The Atlee government preventing most Holocaust survivors from entering Britain after the second world war?
Never again after the heroic work of Sir Keir. But he believes it: the (supposed) protection of Jews is the only thing that has given Starmer political purpose and will, he prays, secure his otherwise dubious place in history.

Starmer has repeatedly conflated British Jews with Israel, framed campaigns against genocide as antisemitic and called for pro-Palestine demonstrations to be postponed or cancelled without any evidence of their connection to violent attacks. This has confirmed the Israeli narrative that diaspora Jews represent the Israeli state. The outcome is that people angry with Israel's genocide are more likely to take that anger out on British Jews. For all Starmer's philosemitism, his actions have arguably increased antisemitism.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jul 13

The implication of this ridiculous statement is that it is impossible to ‘tackle antisemitism’ while applying labels like apartheid, settler colonialism and genocide to Israel. Since those labels are here to stay (they are accurate) this is a recipe for a permanent antisemitism crisis.

BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS
ADVOCACY I DEMOCRACY I COMMUNITY
13.07.2026
The motion passed at General Synod today is highly problematic. Kairos Palestine may come from a place of genuine pain, but the falsehoods and distortions of Kairos II, including its erasure of Jewish identity and experience, is a prescription for more division and not the answer to conflict in the Middle East. There is also a clear tension between the incendiary wording of the document and the Church's expressed aim of tackling antisemitism.
We thank our allies across the Church of England who worked to share our concerns and mitigate the harms associated with the Synod motions relating to Kairos Palestine, including by calling for dialogue with the Jewish community.

We remain committed to working with Christians, Jews, Muslims and others in this country to tackle hatred and extremism, and build a better future for all at home and abroad. We must not import conflict, but export peace instead. We will be stepping up that
work over the coming days.
Phil Rosenberg
President
))
© The Board cl Deputies of British Jews Limited

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jun 16

They just seemed to focus that way, almost by accident

Among the suggestions under discussion, which seemed to focus on private rather than state schools, was Marlborough College, the school his mother Catherine had attended.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jun 14

New worst AI slop just dropped. Tbh, if we are comparing today with the Battle of Cable Street then it was the thugs supporting the Israel real estate fair that were the real blackshirts.

AI art:
THEY SHALL NOT PASS
THESE STREETS ARE OUR HOME
CABLE STREET 1936 → EDGWARE 2026
THE BATTLE OF EDGEWARE

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jun 14

As if by clockwork

BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS
ADVOCACY I DEMOCRACY | COMMUNITY
14.06.2026
We are deeply disturbed at the wholly unjustified protest called for this morning outside a North-West
London synagogue.
The event organisers have publicly refuted claims that the event is marketing real estate over the Green Line. It is very disappointing that MPs and other public figures have not acknowledged this and instead inflamed tensions through partial and misleading commentary.
Protesting at a synagogue based on false pretences seems to be little more than an excuse to harass and intimidate members of the Jewish community.
We have been in touch with the Metropolitan Police calling for protesters to be kept from intimidating members of the community, to police robustly any examples of hate speech, and to provide reassurance to the local community.
New measures under the Crime and Policing Act, called for by the Board and community partners, will from the end of the month give police new powers to impose conditions on protests near places of worship. We are calling on the police to ensure such protests are kept a significant distance from places of worship to prevent intimidation to members of the Jewish community.
Adrian Cohen
Acting President
• The Board of Deputies of British Jews Limited, 2026

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jun 5

www.toratalbion.org.uk/the-futility...

His is hardly the most left-wing voice in the book (he publicly condemned Corbyn for antisemitism in 2018) but Rabbi Jonathan Romain's chapter is perhaps the most surprising. Romain is brave enough to consider that the State of Israel may cease to exist, asking 'what would its effect be on Jewish life in the UK once the shock had dissipated and efforts made to give refuge to any Israelis who came here. Romain notes that this would hardly be the first period in Jewish history without sovereignty and implies that while Israel's fall would hardly be desirable it would not be the end of the world: 'Jewish home life would continue. So too would synagogue services and activities, while the feeling of personal Jewish identity would remain, as well as a sense of solidarity with Jews elsewhere in the world. He concludes by saying that Israel is 'not the sum total of Jewish creativity, not its only future.
Within the sweep of 4000 years of Jewish history, an independence of only seventy-eight years make it seem like a
pop-up state. We neither dismiss it not worship it, but nor do we depend on it. Indeed. The end of Israel in its current form may well come sooner than most people think.
The primary task for Progressive Jews is to think about what Judaism will look like if and when
that occurs, and tailor our actions in the present accordingly.

$If the book's aim is to rescue Zionism in some idealised form, it ultimately fails. What comes across very clearly is how horrendous Rabbis and Cantors have found the period since October 2023 - attempting to hold together increasingly fractious and divided communities in a way they have never had to do previously. In a community where both Kahanist and anti-Zionist views have both been growing, the Liberal Zionist centre simply cannot hold. I suspect that in retrospect this book will be viewed as a last hurrah - a final attempt to maintain the idea of Progressive Judaism as Zionist. It surely cannot be long before the movement is forced to concede - at the very least - that it is a movement that contains Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists within its ranks, and that all are equally welcome. It will be the first of the UK mainstream denominations to take such a stance, but I suspect it will not be the last.$

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Jun 4

Tell me you haven't read any Sartre without telling me you haven't read any Sartre

Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre theorised that we all have prejudices within us, the issue is whether we challenge them, and it can be argued that the NHS is no different in this. NHS employees face hidden, unconscious, visible and audible racism at their place of work. Sometimes there will be mutual animosity and at other times mutual unconscious bias.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 25

This is not ‘offensive language’ it’s a call for immigrants to be forcibly deported to an uninhabitable island and left to die.

Lowe has used offensive language about immigrants, recently saying at the campaign launch in Makerfield: “They should be deported to a midge-infested island offshore either England or Scotland and let the midges do the rest.” Reform figures have noted that Shepherd appeared uncomfortable standing next to Lowe as he made those remarks, and appeared to grimace. “I wonder if she knew what she let herself in for,” one said.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 14

We might say that the entire party theme was the issue, not merely Harry’s costume

The duke said he had learned from his own "past mistakes", an apparent reference to an incident when he was 20 years old.
In 2005 Harry was heavily criticised because he had worn a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party with a "Native and Colonial" theme.
Harry publicly apologised for what he did at the time saying it was "a poor choice of costume".

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 12

Incredible

A bit more detail about the prime minister's refusal to speak to cabinet ministers about his leadership after their meeting earlier.

A government source tells the BBC that at today's cabinet meeting, Keir Starmer told colleagues he wouldn't discuss the election results or his leadership, and would only speak to cabinet ministers about those topics "individually".

The source says that after the meeting the prime minister "refused to see cabinet ministers individually".

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 10

The Board of Deputies has said many ridiculous things over the years but this is another level. The fascist leader gets a hechsher (kosher stamp) while the Jewish one is beyond the pale.

Michael Wegier, executive director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told Haaretz that Reform UK "is a serious party with many supporters, local councillors, and an increasing number of members of Parliament from month to month, which cannot be ignored. They have also expressed very broad support for the fight against antisemitism. There was no way we would not invite them."
He added: "We did not invite the Greens' Zack Polanski because we very strongly do not believe he has done enough to root out antisemitism from his party."

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 9

Enjoyably bonkers from Jake Wallis-Simons www.thejc.com/opinion/the-...

They just love it, don't they? And in this prevailing culture of Niceism, the nicer you are, the deeper your hatred for the Jews and their national home. What are we to make of the fact that, as YouGov polling has shown, if there were a general election tomorrow in which only women under 50 participated, the Greens would come first with a stonking majority? That's before you even count Muslim voters.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 7

www.vashtimedia.com/the-present-...

It's been a grim week, and a grim few weeks. I want to recognise that. We're part of this community too, and we do feel it. I want to start with three things. One is an urge for people to wait and see what comes from investigations and court cases. It's really important to find out exactly what happened in each individual case, and not jump in with preexisting pet projects, ideologies, solutions, whatever it is. We need to be really precise and not just talk about these attacks in generalised, overarching ways, as if antisemitism were a hovering cloud that acts with its own agency.

My second, related point is that we shouldn’t merge all of these different events into one. [In the last few weeks] we have had attacks on property, arson attacks, and now we have stabbing attacks. Then, there are a whole bunch of other things [that are are also invoked], like people shouting abuse at Jewish people, people shouting “Free Palestine” at Jewish people, people writing things on social media that we might say is not very nuanced, but is actually fine, people going on marches, which is fine, saying slogans that are mostly fine. The analysis that blurs these together is really, really unhelpful.

The third point I want to emphasise is that we're not alone. It's a choice to only connect up attacks on Jews and create a narrative of antisemitic attacks. But there are tons of attacks on Muslims, including arson attacks, car ramming attacks, and violent attacks. There are plenty of attacks on trans people, plenty of attacks on immigrants, plenty of attacks on women. If we choose to see it, the existence of a multi-extremism, multi-violence, can be our narrative, right? I think that will help us feel left less alone and I think it also avoids us reaching for authoritarian solutions, and also nationalist solutions, which say the only way we can be safe is to have our own space, our own territory, our own army, etc.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 6

Just came across (via Owen Jones’ article) this super racist piece from the Times last week www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Be afraid, be very afraid of disingenuous Zack Polanski
Green Party seems happy to tolerate antisemitism, Muslim sectarianism and Corbynites — it's wholly unfit for power
Janice Turner

Zack Polanski knows what he's doing. Two Jewish men are stabbed in London's most famous Jewish neighbourhood and on X he's "thinking of the victims ... and
everyone who once again will be shaken by this attack". No clue from Zack who this "everyone" might be. Instead he delivers the minimum sympathies decency requires: boilerplate pieties that swerve the J-word.
"Tew" cannot be nerenanine conteyt

"Jew" cannot be uttered in the context of suffering or religious violence. Even after the Manchester synagogue attack and arson of the Hatzola ambulances, Polanski airily asked whether the Jewish community faced "a perception of unsafety or actual unsafety". Rather, for Polanski,
"Jew" is his political shield. How can the Greens be riddled with antisemites, he asks, when led by him, a Jew?
Now, at a blood-spattered bus stop in Golders Green, "actual unsafety" is captured on CCTV.
How will Polanski play it? Ah, that man on the ground tackled by desperate police is black. Soon we learn he's Somali, thus almost certainly Muslim, and just out of a psychiatric wing. Not that the officers fighting to extract a knife from his grip and control hands that, for all they know, might detonate a backpack bomb are aware of these things.
• Zack Polanski 'sorry' over criticism of Met terror suspect arrest
But Polanski sniffs an angle. He retweets a random Green member rebuking the police for kicking a mentally ill man. Note: he doesn't post

So within 24 hours Polanski has the stabbed Jews in his rear-view mirror and has effectively reassigned guilt from their attacker to the (brutal, racist, Islamophobic) British state. Time for the Greens to release a video about Gaza.
Too soon, given marches in Gaza's name were allowed to incubate the hatred that led us to Golders Green? Nope. Press on. There's plausible deniability. Because don't liberal Jews always say Israel's crimes have nothing to do with them? So where's the problem? Scared families, kids who daren't wear their Jewish school blazers, kosher businesses shuttered, synagogues under armed guard? Yada yada. What's that compared with
"genocide"?

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 6

Feels passive aggressive

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Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· May 3

This is a screenshot from the documentary which can be viewed here m.youtube.com/watch?v=xNhD...

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Apr 30

What the hell is this from Jonathan Hall KC? news.sky.com/story/britai...

"If I was a foreign intelligence officer, of course ! would ensure that the UK hated itself and its history," he says in the speech.
"That the very definition of woman should be put into question, and that masculinity would be presented as toxic.
"That white people should be ashamed and nonwhite people aggrieved. I would promote antisemitism within politics.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Apr 27

At the launch of this book published by Progressive Judaism, in which I have a chapter. Mine is a defence of universalism in Progressive Jewish liturgy.

Progressive Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel
Editors
Dr Ed Kessler,
Rabbi Charley Baginsky, Rabbi Josh Levy
The Movement for
Progressive
Judaism

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Apr 19

I am arguing against comments like this which are useless and unhelpful in combatting what seems to be a very specific group / threat

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism described the situation as "a spate of daily arson attacks on the Jewish community" and warned of escalating risks.
"It betrays a cataclysmic failure of the state - politicians, police chiefs and prosecutors - to tackle antisemitic extremism in this country," the spokesperson said. "Britain is fundamentally a different country now."

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Apr 7

What is this from Melvin Benn who booked Kanye West

“I am a deeply committed anti-fascist and have been all my adult life. I lived on a kibbutz for many months in the 1970s that was attacked on 7 October, am pro-Jew and the Jewish state, while being equally committed to a Palestinian state.”

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Mar 18

Wait till Nick hears about the Aleynu. (Also he has a record of antisemitism as well as Islamophobia, doing Soros tropes and co-writing May’s Citizens of Nowhere Speech)

Nick Timothy MP
Too many are too polite to say this.
But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.
The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination.
Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.
And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals.
I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.
Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Mar 16

The Union of Jewish Students survey has a headline finding that 20% of students would not want to houseshare with a Jewish student. This is the actual question, which is seriously leading, prompting students to consider the geopolitics, and this emphasises the challenges of such a share.

Considering recent geopolitical events, how open would you be to sharing a house with a Jewish student(s)?

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Mar 16

The first thing is really bad, the others are not, why are you presenting them as if they are all the same?

A UJS poll of 1,000 students “of all faiths and none” found almost a quarter (23%) have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity and nearly half (47%) have witnessed justification of the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

Half (49%) of the students surveyed said they have heard slogans or chants glorifying Hamas, Hezbollah or other proscribed groups, and 65% have had their learning disrupted by protests.

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Mar 15

If something doesn’t sound antisemitic enough why not translate it into German?

It says: “The historical context makes this particularly serious. Nazi propaganda consistently depicted Jews and Jewish national aspirations as threats to humanity, using remarkably similar language to justify persecution and ultimately genocide.

“The phrase ‘threat to humanity’ (Gefahr für die Menschheit) appeared repeatedly in Nazi anti-Semitic materials portraying Jews as a malign force that must be eliminated for humanity’s survival.”

Joseph Finlay@josephfinlay· Mar 6

Stop with the ‘our Jewish community’ nonsense. You don’t own us Keir. Stop using our safety to bolster your failing government.