, updated
When I stumbled upon the social media feeds of Green Party election candidate Mothin Ali, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
It was mid-February, and the Daily Mail was investigating an anti-Semitic hate campaign that had forced Leeds University’s Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, into hiding.
Rabbi Deutsch is an Israeli national. So, like almost all of his countrymen under the age of 40, he is required to serve as a reservist in its armed forces.
Following the October 7 terror attacks, he had therefore been called upon to temporarily return to his homeland.
He spent three months with his regiment in the Israeli Defence Forces before returning to the UK in January.