The London Jewish Chronicle reports:
HENDON ADATH synagogue was this week beginning the process of severing all its connections with its governing body, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in Stamford Hill.
The North-West London synagogue had given the Union a 21-day deadline - which ran out on Wednesday - to dissociate itself through a public statement from the extremist, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect.
Hendon Adath had taken a stand against the Union inititally because - as revealed in the JC - its accounts showed it had given Neturei Karta more than £58,000 in grants.
More recently, Hendon's anger was rekindled by the sect's support for Hamas and Hizbollah and its appearance at two anti-Israel rallies, one of them on a Shabbat.
Zalmi Unsdorfer, a lifelong Hendon Adath member, said this week: "This is no longer about funds, or about Zionism or ideology. It amounts to a tacit acceptance by community [Union] rabbis of behaviour that they should have condemned as every bit as treif as a ham sandwich at a Kedassia function.
"Such condemnation should have been instinctive and not have to be forced upon learned rabbis under threat of secession or otherwise," added Mr Unsdorfer.
The decision means Hendon will no longer send representatives to Union meetings, allow Union notices to be displayed in its synagogues or take part in any Union-organized communal events. All Hendon's decisions on halachah and other religious matters will be decided by the synagogue's minister, Rabbi Pinchas Roberts. He, too, was under pressure this week to voice his opinion about the sect.
[Hat tip: moralclimate.]