Nahamu (“Comfort”) is a British think-tank which campaigns against religious extremism in the Haredi Jewish community. It was founded in 2019 by Orthodox Jews concerned that coercive practices in the Haredi community were being ignored due to secular concerns around cultural sensitivity.
Nahamu acts as a thinktank aiming to engage policy-makers and influence both government and community leaders in areas such as forced marriage and safeguarding practices in community institutions. It works with other organisations such as Mavar and Gesher EU to assist Haredi Jews who wish to leave the community, but primarily seeks to improve the living conditions and welfare of Jewish people who choose to remain in their existing communities. Founder Yehudis Fletcher, who continues to identify as Haredim, has stated, “I’m not threatening to leave [the Haredi community], I’m threatening to stay.”
History.
There are approximately 75,000 Haredi Jews in Britain, mainly located in London, Manchester, and Gateshead, with smaller communities establishing themselves in Canvey Island, and Westcliff, both in Essex. An interlinked series of institutions and affiliated groups with shared values, rather than a single denomination, Haredi Jews are characterised by their strict adherence to their interpretation of Jewish law and a rejection of secularism. Although the Haredim have been living in Britain since the nineteenth century (the Union of Hebrew Congregations being founded in 1926, Haredi population was boosted substantially by refugees from and survivors of Soviet persecution and the Holocaust. Absence of intermarriage coupled with both a high birth and retention rate spur rapid growth of the Haredi population, which is on pace to more than double every 20 years. Haredi Jews are currently 25% of the Jewish population in the UK, and are projected to form 40% by 2040 according to research by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
An insular religious community with a long history of persecution, the Haredi Jewish community has been subject to criticism for its reluctance to engage with UK laws and regulations, in particular in regards to their approach to education, women's rights, children's rights, and religious coercion. Efforts to engage the Haredi community on these subjects are often met with public protests and allegations of antisemitism.
Nahamu was co-founded by Yehudis Fletcher and Eve Sacks and other Orthodox Jews. The daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Yehudis Fletcher grew up in the Haredi community and was married into the Satmar order at the age of 18. After several years of her reports of sexual abuse by her teacher Todros Grynhaus being ignored by Jewish authorities, her testimony in court led to his conviction and sentencing to thirteen years in prison in May 2015. Eve Sacks, a prominent Orthodox feminist campaigner who co-founded the UK branch of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, met Yehudis at blah. In 2019, they launched Nahamu as an organisation advised by Adam Wagner a Jewish human rights lawyer, and Rashad Ali, a former Islamist and anti-religious extremism campaigner. Their initial board of directors included David Taube, a barrister and director of policy at the Quilliam Foundation and Daniel Jonas, a Jewish cultural figure and counter-extremism advocate.
Nahamu has five areas of focus:
In addition to its challenge to the Haredi institutional frameworks, Nahamu also aims to defend the Haredi community and way of life from discrimination and prejudice in the mainstream media and the Jewish community itself. Haredi community leaders have been critical of Nahamu, calling it a “secularist ‘Jewish’ group” and “hostile campaigners against the Chareidi kehillah”
Forced marriage.
In 2021, Nahamu published a position paper with the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
The position paper was welcomed by many women's rights campaigners and Jewish figures. Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, released a statement that forced marriage is “despicable”. The Haredi community reacted negatively, with Chaya Spitz, the CEO of the Interlink Foundation, condemning Nahamu as “stigmatising ultra-Orthodox marriage”, and engaging with Yehudis Fletcher on a number of media platforms to discuss the views of Haredi leaders.
The British government subsequently translated their pamphlet on forced marriage into Yiddish in response to these concerns.
Denial of education.
In 2024, Nahamu published their second position paper, on the lack of secular education, including the teaching of English, in the Haredi school system and calling for greater regulation and for illegal private educational institutions in the Haredi community to be shut down.
Personal autonomy.
In 2021, Yehudis Fletcher challenged Jewish comedian David Baddiel, who had posted disparaging comments about the Haredi community following reports of widespread disregard of COVID-19 lockdown regulations. Fletcher argued that the Haredi community is often othered by mainstream Jewry but they are as much a part of the British Jewish community as secular Jews like Baddiel and their concerns should be taken seriously. Baddiel and Fletcher's dialogue on Twitter resulted in a public debate at JW3 that was streamed online and attended by over 1,000 people.
Nahamu has been critical of the impact of the Haredim community's policy against allowing Haredi women to drive.
References.
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