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Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet #fundie jewishnews.co.uk

["I was always sceptical about ordained Orthodox female rabbis. And now one has now been given a job in an Orthodox synagogue. That should surely suggest it is becoming acceptable. Do you envisage that happening in the UK?"]

In a word, no. Don’t get me started on these pseudo-suffragettes, or should that read “rabbragettes”? In any event, she got a job in an “Open-Orthodox” synagogue – whatever that means. Suffice it to say, a little digging and one discovers on the website that on the High Holidays they have a “family section” in their synagogue, i.e. no mechitza and men and women sit together.

So, in summation, when someone gets “ordained” in some so-called Orthodox manner and immediately takes up her posting in a synagogue that breaches some of the fundamentals of Orthodoxy (I guess that’s what they mean by “open”), then you have to call into question the establishment that “ordains” these women and indeed the women’s own levels of conviction.
My father always told me: “If the end result is no good, then you know the whole premise is flawed.

["Do you have an issue with fashion chain H&M selling a scarf that looks like a Jewish prayer shawl? H&M has apologised, but weren’t critics being over-sensitive?"]

Over-sensitive is an understatement. I only wonder, if one wears one to shul on Shabbat morning, have you fulfilled your spiritual duty or do you still need to go in and listen to the rabbi’s sermon?

Actually come to think of it, it’s a win-win for women in partnership services. Not only can they pretend their service is Orthodox, they can even pretend they are wearing a tallit.

Gerry Downing #conspiracy jewishnews.co.uk

The Labour Party has expelled a far-left member of whose website has carried a number of anti-Semitic articles.

Jeremy Corbyn was urged by David Cameron during prime minister’s questions to remove Gerry Downing over comments that the 9/11 attackers “must never be condemned” – but the Labour leader did not respond.

Following these revelations, a Labour Party spokesperson told the Telegraph: “Following further evidence that has come to light Gerry Downing has now been excluded from the Labour Party by the NEC panel.”

The Guido Fawkes website uncovered evidence it said appears to show his “obsession with “Jewish” people”.

Last summer, he tweeted an article entitled ‘Why Marxists must address the Jewish question”. The article says: ““The role Zionists have played in the attempted witch-hunt against Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaign is glaringly obvious. Since the dawning of the period of neo-liberal capitalism in the 1970s, elements of the Jewish-Zionist bourgeoisie, from Milton Friedman to Henry Kissinger to the pro-Israel ideologues of the War on Terror, have played a vanguard role for the capitalist offensive against the workers.”

On Wednesday, he tweeted another piece headlined ‘Political confusionism from Ukraine, the Islamic State to the world “Jewish-Zionist bourgeoisie””.

Before his expelling, members of parliament and community figures called for Downing to go.

John Mann MP, chair of the APPG Against Antisemitism said: “This man has no place in the Labour Party, he should be thrown out immediately”

A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “If the comments attributed to Gerry Downing about Jews are genuine, he is an obnoxious anti-Semite who should not be accepted in any modern political movement.

“If Labour has allowed him back in, the decision should be rescinded and an immediate inquiry launched in to how this could possibly have been allowed. Labour must demonstrate a clear and unequivocal zero tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism.”

A CST spokesman said: “This will only add fuel to communal concerns about anti-Semitism problems in and around parts of the Labour Party.”

Downing was readmitted to the party following an appeal. A party spokesman said: “If new evidence comes to light the Labour Party will review that evidence and make sure the rules of the party are upheld.”

Tony Clarke #conspiracy jewishnews.co.uk

The Green Party has issued an apology after its foreign affairs spokesperson, Tony Clarke, told national radio that a firm part-owned by Nathaniel Rothschild is bankrolling ISIS terror.

Tuesday morning Clarke told BBC Radio 5 : “There are British oil companies such as Genel Energy, run by Nathaniel Rothschild, one of George Osborne’s friends, who are making money, who are buying oil from ISIS, who are putting money into the pot, allowing ISIS therefore to fuel their evil across the world.”

The Green Party apologised on behalf of the former Labour MP for Northampton South on Tuesday night. In a statement, its press office said: “The Green Party and Tony Clarke apologise to Genel Energy for this false statement, which they have withdrawn and have undertaken not to repeat.”

“Genel Energy, in which Mr Rothschild is only a shareholder and non-executive director, is a producer of oil in the Kurdistan Region. It is not, and never has been, a purchaser of oil from anyone,” the statement continued.

Clarke later removed a link to the interview from his Twitter, where users accused him of peddling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He is an outspoken critic of Israel and in his blog last year wrote: “It is still very clear that the USA values the Jewish vote far higher than Palestinian life”.

The BBC said it had edited the comments from an online podcast of 5 Live‘s Breakfast programme after taking legal advice.

Clarke was expelled from Labour in 2005 after running against the party in the wake of an internal dispute.