Rupert Nathan, 63, was arrested by British police and detained for 12 hours after making inflammatory remarks about a Reform rabbi in a private Facebook post. Nathan referred to Gabriel Kanter-Webber as a “creep,” a “fake rabbi,” and a “kapo boy,” sparking allegations of hate speech and antisemitism. For those that don’t know, the term “kapo” refers to Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who cooperated with their captors, often at the expense of fellow prisoners. Nathan, while acknowledging that his comments were offensive, argued they were neither illegal nor antisemitic. “I admit that calling someone a ‘kapo’ is not a nice thing to do, but it is not a crime,” he told the Daily Mail. The remarks were aimed at Rabbi Kanter-Webber of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, also known as Adat Shalom Verei’ut. Kanter-Webber reported Nathan to both the police and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), Nathan’s professional body. While the CISI declined to take action, police arrested Nathan at his home in August. Nathan described the arrest as humiliating, particularly as it took place in front of his 12-year-old daughter. “She was in tears—completely inconsolable,” Nathan said. “Still now she has this deep fear that the police are going to take me away and put me in jail.” At the police station, Nathan was fingerprinted, DNA tested, and held in a cold cell for 10 hours before being released on bail. The case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether Nathan should be charged with “malicious communications.” Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, criticized the arrest, saying, “If it’s not a criminal offense for pro-Palestinian protesters to call for a global intifada, I don’t see how a Jew calling another Jew a ‘kapo’ can possibly be against the law.” The Manchester-based group North West Friends of Israel also condemned the situation, saying Kanter-Webber’s decision to involve the police instead of extending compassion was unbecoming of a rabbi. “The fact that Gabriel Kanter-Webber … chose to report someone to the police rather than reach out, in the pastoral role you would expect of a rabbi, says so much,” the group said. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)