Momentum founder Jon Lansman has confirmed he would find it “difficult” speaking with Jeremy Corbyn today, although the pair recently nodded to one another at the House of Commons.
The Jewish left-winger said that while he “wasn’t seeking to have a conversation” with Corbyn, he would “find it difficult to have a conversation with him, and I suspect he may well find it difficult to have a conversation with me”.
Speaking to the JC, Lansman, who grew up in an Orthodox family in Southgate, north London, also revealed he would feel “uncomfortable” attending pro-Palestine marches today.
He said his “Jewishness has become more important in my life, largely because of what happened in the Corbyn era.”
Lansman added:“I was in shul in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which I haven’t been for quite a long time. I’m not a religious person, but my Jewishness is important to me, and these are very troubled times.”
He revealed he attended services at Kehillah North London, a progressive community in Stoke Newington “where a prayer was recited, not only for Israel, but for Israel and Palestine. And so, it was perhaps a non-typical service, but I felt at home there.”
The 66 year-old, who stood down from Momentum over three years ago, had told the New Statesman magazine last November how he has little contact with Corbyn these days.
He added then that he believed Corbyn had a “real problem” engaging with communal bodies such as the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership council as a result of a decision to read out prepared statements written by Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s ex director of communications.
