Two Naked Emperors

About the Book

In April 2025, 36 Members of the UK Board of Jewish Deputies (effectively the UK’s Jewish Parliament) co-signed a Letter to the Financial Times calling out the Israeli Government, and in particular its Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, for its behaviour in Gaza. This broke a mafia-style omerta of silence under which no mainstream Jewish diaspora leaders or organisation ever publicly criticised an Israeli Government. It also fiercely divided the Anglo-Jewish community into three camps: those who agreed, those who disagreed and those who, while agreeing, were uncomfortable with going public. Unsurprisingly the 36 signatories of the FT Letter were the subject of complaints to the Board. This book starts with two introductory chapters: the first about Judaism and antisemitism, and the second about both the Board and the United Synagogue (representing the Orthodox element in the community). It then examines in detail how the complaints were handled. The author, who was one of the 36, and also one of the five of them most heavily sanctioned for giving broadcast interviews on the day the letter was published, shows how the complaints procedure was procedurally flawed to an extent that reeked of the perversion of what should have been a quasi-judicial process into satisfying the bloodlust of the reactionary end of the Anglo-Jewish community. He has written the book because he strongly believes that people and institutions operating in the public domain should be accountable for their actions. This book does so by telling the story of what happened. As US Supreme Court Justice Brandeis memorably observed: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

About the Author

Philip Goldenberg has had the privilege of a variegated career in law, politics, business, charity, and religion. His previous book about the various organisations with which he was involved, and how they worked (or more frequently, didn’t work) was called Walking through Different Worlds, with a subtitle of Annoying People for Good (which he regards as his principal talent). He was a top City lawyer, specialising in corporate finance and governance, with significant experience in voluntary organisations, as well as constitutional law; has chaired a quoted company; has been a non-executive director of the CBI; has been a Treasurer and Trustee of the Royal Society of Arts; has chaired a national charity; has been Deputy Chair of the Electoral Reform Society; has been an active Liberal Democrat locally and nationally, contesting seven Parliamentary elections and serving as a Woking Borough Councillor for thirteen years (he also advised the Liberal Party when it merged with the SDP and co-authored the original Constitution of the Liberal Democrats, and drafted what became the 2010/5 Coalition’s Machinery of Government Agreement); is active in interfaith work inter alia as a former Trustee of Woking People of Faith; is a co-Deputy Chair and Interfaith Officer of the North West Surrey Reform Synagogue, which he also represents on the Jewish Board of Deputies; and has also recently been actively involved with the formation of Progressive Judaism.