Two items of fake news in Chronicle’s report on pro-Labour letter from Holocaust survivors printed in Sunday Times

Earlier today, the SKWAWKBOX published details of an open letter sent by Jewish Holocaust survivors also printed in the Sunday Times. The letter praised Jeremy Corbyn’s efforts on behalf of Jewish people and backed the Labour Party in its interactions with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Jewish Chronicle (JC) which has taken a resolutely anti-Corbyn line and was one of three publications who all printed a front page on the same day calling the Labour leader an ‘existential threat’, also covered the publication of the letter. In doing so, it used at least three pieces of false information.

Fake news #1 – Satmar

False information #1

The JC reported that all of the signatories were connected to the ‘Satmar’ group of Orthodox Jews, in what appeared to be an attempt to portray the letter as some kind of factional effort promoted by Labour member Shraga Stern, whom the article went on to criticise.

However, Mr Stern told the SKWAWKBOX that while one of the signatories prays at the same synagogue as he does, many of the twelve have no links to Satmar.

Fake news 2 – the earlier letter

As part of its attack on Shraga Stern, the article refers to an earlier letter, one which was signed by thirty-four leading Orthodox rabbis in support of Jeremy Corbyn. When the letter was published by the SKWAWKBOX, the JC at first dismissed the letter as a fake, then quietly rowed back on the claim.

But today‘s article claims that the some of the rabbis who signed that first letter were not aware of what they were signing – claiming this fact ’emerged’:

But this is untrue – no such thing ’emerged’. Quite the contrary. The idea was briefly floated by opponents of the letter, but then swiftly discredited.

Says who? Says the Jewish Chronicle:

In September, in a follow-up article to the letter – one of several after the SKWAWKBOX debunked false claims the letter was fake – the JC admitted that those who had said the letter was faked had retracted their claim. Not only that, but the only rabbis the JC seems to have asked about the content of the letter all confirmed they were fully aware of the contents.

The JC did not publish details of a single rabbi who said he had not read the contents before signing.

But that’s not all. The Jewish Chronicle was already in possession of proof of the letter’s authenticity – in the form of a text from the rabbi who founded the Jewish Community Council – the organisation the JC said had alleged it was fake. The rabbi confirmed that he had spoken to those involved and they had signed it in full awareness and good faith:

The text message from the founder of the JCC

Yet the paper only printed the evidence after it was contacted by the SKWAWKBOX with a request to comment on why it had not done so, because this blog was preparing to reveal the information and the fact that it had not been published:

SKWAWKBOX comment:

The views of the UK’s large Orthodox Jewish population – expected to represent more than half the country’s total Jewish population within a dozen or so year – are routinely ignored by the so-called ‘mainstream’ media.



However, those views have been attacked by the Jewish Chronicle today, employing false claims to do so. It is not the first time.

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