Jews Gatekeeping Jews: How British Jewish Leaders Are Policing Dissent on Israel
Until just a month ago, I was the Scotland Support Worker for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity dedicated to Holocaust commemoration and education. I had served in this role for just over three months and was in the midst of organizing the official Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony for Scotland, due to be held at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in January this year.
Suddenly, at the beginning of December 2025, I was informed that my contract was being terminated. I was completely cut out of the ceremony I was planning and left uncredited. The reason? My involvement with my local chapter of Standing Together (Omdim B'Yachad), a fact that the Trust were fully aware of when they hired me.
Standing Together is perhaps Israel's largest grassroots Jewish-Arab coexistence movement, founded by left-wing activists a decade ago as a partnership of Jews and Arabs, against racism, against the occupation, for peace and social justice.
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There had been no warning, no prior discussion. All the Trustees had met over the weekend and decided that this was apparently the only option. I was given no opportunity to negotiate or to defend myself; the decision was final.
They stated that I had not personally said or done anything wrong but that my involvement with Standing Together was egregious enough to warrant action as extreme as this. My integrity and ability to do this job were never called into question – that was confirmed by the Trust itself. But its decision was an invasion of privacy and my right to a personal life outside of work, while exposing a deeper malaise in Jewish institutional life.
Despite a chaotic month, the support I have received from Jews all over the world has been overwhelming. After a report in the U.K.'s Jewish News, messages of support flooded in from both friends and strangers. Standing Together have been exceptionally supportive, starting a letter writing campaign and petition that now has over 800 signatures. There is now an open letter, signed by numerous high-profile academics who work in the field of Holocaust education and antisemitism, which was also recently covered by Haaretz.
Although I was asked by the Trust not to share my story, I believe I must: it is the right thing to do, for both myself and for other Jews who have found themselves in a similar situation.
Demonstrators form a human chain outside the Qatar embassy in a protest calling for the release of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in London, Britain, October 29, 2023Credit: MAJA SMIEJKOWSKA/ REUTERS
By claiming that my values somehow no longer align with that of Holocaust education, the intent here is clear; any diversity of opinion is unwelcome. But the obsession with language around Israel and Palestine, to the point of persecuting well-intentioned individuals is a tipping point.
The last two years have been incredibly raw for Jews everywhere, with countless Jews still traumatized by the events of October 7. The last few months in particular have been horrifying for Jews in the diaspora, with deadly antisemitic attacks on communities in the U.K. and Australia on major Jewish holidays.
I appreciate that many Jewish organizations have been put in an incredibly difficult position with regard to what's happening in Israel and Palestine. As Jews in the diaspora, we should not be subject to any sort of 'morality test' on Israel and Palestine: that is a straight line towards explicit discrimination. That red line, however, should not exclude any and every conversation, particularly those that are seen as less palatable, whether within the community or outside of it.
A pro-democracy protesters passes by a quiet protest by activists holding up photos of children killed in Gaza. Tel Aviv, June 2025Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
My dismissal indicates the growing structural issues facing many Jewish communal institutions, both in the U.K. and beyond. Young Jews in particular often feel sidelined by community leaders, who demand punitive consequences for even the merest of dissent.
Caring about Palestine and caring about the Holocaust are not mutually exclusive. Caring about Palestine and caring about Israel are not mutually exclusive. With friends and family in Israel, the last thing I want to see is more violence against both Israelis and Palestinians, so why have I been portrayed by the Trust as having such radical views?
Why is it controversial to care about over 70,000 Gazans killed during the war, or hundreds killed in settler violence in the West Bank, just as much as I care about the 1200 Israelis killed on October 7?
Would my punishment had been the same if I had associated with a campaigning group related to the Uyghur genocide? Or the Mayan genocide in Guatemala?
Activists from Standing Together carry sacks of flour through Habima Square, Tel Aviv in a protest against the rising hunger in Gaza, July 2025Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
In December, Omdim B'Yachad's Angela Mattar and Eliah Levin led a number of successful sessions at Limmud U.K., the world's largest Jewish education conference – and firmly in the mainstream of British Jewish life. Seeing the direct impact that their sessions had on attendees, and those of similar groups such as Yachad and Breaking the Silence, was powerful.
Not all reactions were positive, and as the only Palestinian in attendance, Angela carried a heavy burden of trying to appeal to audiences as well as speaking her truth. The negative reactions from some are exactly why these conversations were so important. Being uncomfortable is how we grow and learn to think critically.
As per the Trust's values, Holocaust education is not solely about commemoration, but of learning from the past to prevent future atrocities. For this to succeed, we cannot issue blanket bans against any disagreeable opinion.
March through Tel Aviv by Women Wage Peace and Standing Together calling for a cease-fire, January 2024Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
All in an effort to avoid difficult conversations, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust's recent decision to defer the use of the term "genocide" in lieu of "persecution led," in reference to Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Darfur, is a decision I fundamentally cannot support. Absent of any announcement, the Trust quietly edited their entire website, knowing that the decision would be a controversial one.
How can we refer to the systematic murder of over one million Tutsi as anything other than genocide? Or almost two million Cambodians? How are we supposed to "Learn from genocide for a better future" – their now defunct motto – when we cannot even name the atrocity?
Accepting what always was as what always should be is something we need to overcome in our communities. The popular adage that Jews cannot agree on anything, needs to also include agreeing to disagree.
Not all Jews love or feel connected to Israel, and that is OK. Just as not all Jews keep kosher or go to synagogue, their right to be accepted as Jews is the litmus test of our communities. No Jew is any less a Jew because they don't meet certain standards set out by certain individuals. Infighting and exclusion will not preserve our communities; it will only dismantle them.
Melanie Goldberg, a Politics graduate, has worked in the third sector and as a freelance journalist, with a particular focus on political commentary. She grew up in a small Jewish community in Glasgow and continue to be heavily involved in the community in Scotland and across the U.K.