THE GOOD ENGLISH RABBI HAS BEEN “KNIGHTED” OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND IS CALLED “RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS”….A TITLE THAT I FIND ANNOYING….RSK
As antisemitism rises, leaders of the great faiths must unite against
the ruthless pursuit of power masquerading as religion
The novelist Rebecca West once said that Jews, having suffered so
much, had an “unsurprisable soul”, In 2000 our daughter, then a
university student, attended an anti-globalisation rally in London
that turned into a tirade against America, then Israel and finally
Jews. “Dad, they hate us,” she said through her tears. Hearing those
words in Britain in the 21st century showed me that I had a
surprisable soul.
Jews in Europe have been shaken these past few weeks by the virulence
of the demonstrations about the war in Gaza that also turned into
something older and darker. More than a century after the Dreyfus
trial the cry of “death to the Jews” has been heard again in the
streets of Paris. Seventy years after the Holocaust, “gas the Jews”
has been heard again in Germany. In Britain last month antisemitic
incidents were at almost their highest level in 30 years. These are
danger signals not just for Jews but for Europe.
After our daughter’s experience I saw events move rapidly. In August
2001 at the UN international conference against racism in Durban,
Israel was accused by NGOs of the five cardinal sins against human
rights: racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide and
crimes against humanity. A new blood libel was born. Days later came
9/11, and almost immediately an opinion poll found that 40 per cent of
Pakistanis believed it was carried out by Mossad, Israel’s secret
service.