Secretary of State pledges to support at-risk Northern Irish Jewish community

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Reverend David Kale and Michael Black of the Belfast Jewish Community and President of the Board of Deputies Marie van der Zyl, have met Northern Irish Secretary Brandon Lewis to urge the Government to take action to avoid the Northern Ireland Protocol potentially ending Jewish life in Belfast.

Supply of kosher food from Great Britain to Northern Ireland has continued with interim arrangements, but, under the Northern Ireland Protocol, this will end in September. If kosher food and religious artefacts cannot be supplied, the community is likely to collapse. The Minister pledged his support, as well as that of the Prime Minister and the Government’s lead EU negotiator Lord Frost, on this matter.

Marie van der Zyl said: “The Belfast Jewish community is a great community with a rich history, but also an older and vulnerable one. We thank the Minister for his time, and urge the UK and the EU to generate a creative solution which means that Jews can continue to practise their faith in Northern Ireland.”