 Miliband is of Jewish heritage — the first Jewish leader of the Labour Party — and describes himself as a Jewish atheist . After marrying Thornton in a civil ceremony on 27 May 2011 , he paid tribute to his Jewish heritage by following the tradition of breaking a glass . In 2012 , Miliband wrote , " Like many others from Holocaust families , I have a paradoxical relationship with this history . On one level I feel intimately connected with it – this happened to my parents and grandparents . On another , it feels like a totally different world . " 
