Behind the Headlines Board of Deputies Faces Overhauling

Proposals for radical changes in the running of the Board of Deputies of British Jews will soon be ready for consideration by the 216-year-old umbrella organization of the Anglo-Jewish community. A report, the result of 18 months’ work by a 12-man committee, is expected to cause heated controversy among the community’s “parliament” whose monthly meetings are attended by representatives from all over the British Isles.

It is now being studied by the Board’s four senior officers who are expected to forward it, with their own comments, to the rest of the honorary officers and the senior staff. If implemented, it will bring about considerable changes in a body renowned for its conservative and even archaic image. The first attempt to overhaul the Board in 40 years, the report was instigated by Lord Fisher of Camden when he was elected president three years ago.

Fisher, 72, has just reached the end of his term of office and is constitutionally permitted to stand for another three years. Despite recent illness, he has not yet made up his mind to do so. The election takes place early in July.

Fisher told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that one of the factors which would prompt him to seek another term would be to see the reform plan through to fruition. He particularly wants to widen the scope of the Board so that it will interest academics, industrialists and business people far more than at present.

BOARD HAS BECOME FASHIONABLE

Reviewing his three-year presidency, he expressed satisfaction that from being somewhat denigrated, the Board has now “become fashionable.” The caliber of its staff was higher than ever before and there was intense competition among Jewish congregants to represent their synagogues at its sessions. It also enjoyed great respect in the country as a whole. Other minorities, such as the Baptists, occasionally approached it for advice.

Interest in the Board’s activities has resulted partly from the issues facing the Jewish community–solidarity with Israel and Soviet Jewry and the need to combat fascism in Britain. Fisher himself symbolizes the Board’s prestige. A close friend of former Premier Sir Harold Wilson, he was made a Lord two years ago and is highly thought of in the main political parties.

SOME PROBLEMS CITED

He has regrets, though. In terms of numbers, Anglo-Jewry has become one of the country’s smaller minorities, and it does not have enough close contact with other minorities. Rivalries with other Jewish organizations occasionally showed up the community in an embarrassing light as when the Zionist Federation recently sent a delegation to complain to the Foreign Office about Britain’s Middle East policy, even though some of the same people were on an almost identical delegation sent by the Board.

But there have been compensations. The Board has become far more involved with international Jewish groups. It is now affiliated to the World Jewish Congress, and it is working for closer ties with B’nai B’rith.