For the Record: Just to make sure it's clear

No, exactly not like the pope. Judaism is among the most democratic of religions. "Two Jews, three opinions" is how it works. The chief rabbi in UK represents only Ashkenazi Orthodox, to begin with, now probably outnumbered by the Haredim so not even a majority.

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 26, 2019

This still works in Russia, where the Chief Rabbi, an ultra-orthodox Chabad member, is a Putin tool https://t.co/5u8eonjVli

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 26, 2019

And there will never be a Chief Rabbi of the US because American Jews wouldn't tolerate such a ridiculous thing.

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 26, 2019

I am really extremely disturbed by attacks on Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite, even though  I'm far from in love with the way he expresses himself, as I was explaining the other day:

I feel the way I felt in 2016 explaining what Hillary Clinton did in her paid talks to Goldman Sachs employees. It wasn't conduct I admired, and I didn't agree with everything she told them, but it had to be defended because propagandists were using it to create a Big Lie.

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 22, 2019

However I just want to say that Corbyn's point was that a group of ENGLISH people (a small group of rightwing Zionists who had been heckling him in meeting after meeting) lacked the "sense of irony" that a FOREIGNER (the Palestinian ambassador) had displayed...

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 22, 2019

It should have occurred to him that they were probably mostly or all Jewish (unlike the US, where most fanatical Zionists are hardcore evangelicals) and that he was taking a bad tack there, but it didn't, and here we are.

— Gastroblyansky 🦃 (@Yastreblyansky) November 22, 2019

There's no denying that Corbyn was somewhat insensitive there. And ignorant—a reference to "English irony" for an audience including Jews is on a level with a reference to "English cuisine" with an audience of Italians or representatives of Hindustani culture. But it's on a very different level from Conservative Crispin Blunt's remarkable attack on the actual Chief Rabbi in October, which the Conservative Party doesn't seem to have gone out of its way to object to. And when Tory ignoramuses like Matt Chorley use the libel on Corbyn as an anti-Labour point, please don't trust them.