Jenny Rachel Manson (née Salaman; born November 1948) is a British Jewish activist, author, former civil servant, former Labour Party councillor for Colindale on Barnet London Borough Council, and co-chair of Jewish Voice for Labour.
[2] Her father, Raphael Arthur Salaman[1] (1906–1993) was an engineer and lexicographer of craftsmen's hand-tools[3] who got news from Amnesty and CND delivered, and would read parts of the Bible to Manson.
[9] The Salaman family are Ashkenazi Jews,[10] who according to Manson's paternal grandfather, migrated to Britain from Holland or the Rhineland in the early 18th century.
[1] In June 2018, she told The Jewish Chronicle "my views on Israel and Palestine have moved quite a lot in the last 20 or 30 years, like many people I suppose."
I remember them coming in for secret conversations in the night" and that she felt "desperately frightened" for Israel during the Six-Day War.
"[1] In April 2018, The Jewish Chronicle quoted Manson as saying she "began to identify as a Jew in order to argue against the state of Israel[24] and its conduct..." She later stated, "I was saying that in the context of Jewish political activity I only identified with Jewish organisations as my concerns about Israel's activities grew intense..."[25] In July 2018, Manson was criticised for comparing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism with Section 28.
"[17] In August 2019, she was a signatory of an open letter to The Guardian stating that Tower Hamlets London Borough Council's refusal to host an annual charity bike ride event in aid of Palestinian children in Gaza has vindicated concerns raised about the IHRA working definition of antisemitism and that it "demonstrates that freedom of expression on Palestine in this country is now being suppressed".
[26] In March 2018, Manson said on BBC's Daily Politics that Jeremy Corbyn had taken "enormously strong action" to deal with antisemitism in the Labour Party.
"[28] In November 2019, Manson dismissed Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis' comments that the Labour Party was "incompatible" with British values.
She told ITV News that she had "never been happier than now" to be a Jew in the Labour Party, defended Corbyn and said that the Mirvis did not represent all Jewish people.
"[30] In January 2020, Manson, along with JVL co-chair Leah Levane, expressed concerns over the impact of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD)'s 10-point pledge "to tackle the anti-semitism crisis" suggesting they would silence hundreds of their members and those who hold views that differ from the BoD.