Those who deny Jews or Israel their freedom will lose, or fail to gain, their own.
For the Jews of Europe, these are the best of times and the worst of times. Take British Jewry as an example.
In the past 20 years we have built more Jewish day schools than ever before in our 355-year history. Culturally, a community deemed moribund a generation ago boasts a cultural center, a community center in the making, Jewish Book Weeks, arts, music and film festivals, and an adult-education event – Limmud – that has inspired offshoots in 50 other centers throughout the Jewish world.
Jews have achieved prominence in every field. Both parliamentary speakers, in the Commons and the Lords, are Jewish. We have had, in recent years, two Jewish lord chief justices, Jewish heads of Oxford and Cambridge, a Jewish editor of The Times and Jewish leaders of both the Conservative and Labour parties. Not only are Jews respected, but so is Judaism. The Jewish moral voice has become a significant part of the national conversation.
THESE ARE astonishing achievements. But they are clouded by the disturbing phenomenon of a new anti-Semitism spreading like a virus across Europe. This cries out for explanation. After all, after the Holocaust, if there was one thing on which people of goodwill throughout the world agreed, it was: Never again.
The entire post-war culture of the West – of the world – was tilted in that direction. Out of the determination that there should never be another Holocaust came the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, the concept of a “crime against humanity,” the idea that racism is a vice, the movement for interfaith dialogue, and the historic shift in Christianity known as Vatican II, Nostra Aetate.
How, then, did anti-Semitism return to the very nations that pledged never to repeat it? The cynical answer is that it never died, it merely went underground. There is a shred of truth to this, but very small. As a line of reasoning, it is deeply misleading. For the new anti-Semitism is only secondarily aimed at Jews as individuals. Its real target is Jews as a nation – in Israel.
What has happened in our time is an extraordinarily subtle phenomenon that can only be understood by traveling back two centuries to the age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. For centuries, Europe had been disfigured by crude, theologically driven Christian anti- Judaism. Jews were accused of poisoning wells, spreading the plague, desecrating the host and killing Christian children.
Jews were not the only victims of the Church; witches and heretics were burned as well. Then, following the Reformation, Christians started killing their fellow Christians in Europe’s great wars of religion.
That was when thoughtful people said, “Enough.” This led to the rise of science, the age of reason, the doctrine of toleration and eventually the emancipation of hitherto disenfranchised minorities, including the Jews. It was the most enlightened age in European history, and it was at this precise time, in Paris, Berlin and Vienna – the most sophisticated centers of all – that a new form of hate was born: racial anti-Semitism. As the deadliest virus the West has ever known, it led otherwise ordinary, decent human beings to do, or remain passive witnesses to, unspeakable acts.
That was not a simple phenomenon. The anti-Semitism of the 19th century was not the crude anti-Judaism of the Church. Similarly, the new anti-Semitism of the 21st century is not the racist anti-Semitism of the 19th and 20th.
It is not directed against individual Jews, but against Jews as a nation. It is not spread by conventional means, but by the new technologies of communication – websites, email, blogs and social networks – that are almost impossible to monitor and control.
Its most brilliant, even demonic, stroke has been to adopt as its most powerful weapons the very defenses created against the old anti-Semitism. It accuses Israel of the five cardinal post-Holocaust sins: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.
It is subtle, sophisticated and devastatingly effective.
It is designed to mislead, and it works. Israelis and American Jews see it as a threat to European Jewry, which it is, but only secondarily. The real target is Israel. It is an attack on Israel where it is most vulnerable, namely among the opinion-forming classes of Europe. If Israel is delegitimized in their eyes, that leaves only America, and the shrewd judgment of Israel’s enemies is that, when it comes to supporting Israel, in the long run America will not go it alone.
This is a chess game more long-term and coldly calculated than people realize. It aims at the destruction of the Jewish state. To counter it requires a coordinated global Jewish response beyond anything thus far envisaged. Nor is it a battle that can be fought by Jews alone. Without allies, Jews and Israel will lose.
This means reframing the argument. Anti-Semitism is always a symptom of something more pervasive, an unresolved tension within a culture, that starts by targeting Jews but never stops with them. It was not Jews alone who died at the hands of medieval Christianity, Czarist Russia, Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia: it was freedom itself.
The same will be true in the 21st century. Those who deny Jews or Israel their freedom will lose, or fail to gain, their own.
The writer has been the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth since 1991, and a member of the House of Lords since 2009. He will discuss the future of European Jewry alongside a panel of experts later this month at the third Israeli Presidential Conference: “Facing Tomorrow 2011 in Jerusalem.”
Sometimes when people are called Christians, they are anything but that. We must not put all people who say they are Christians, or they ‘fly under the Christian banner’ into the same category. I am a Christian, and I am fully supportive of Israel and the Jewish people, because the God of the Bible tells us “I will bless those who bless you (Israel), and I will curse those who curse you (Israel). I don’t want to some day stand before Almighty God and be judged for hating the Jews or anyone else for that matter. I could never understand why so many countries and people want to see the Jews and Israel destroyed. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and all Israel every day. (And I am not Jewish).
I think all you Brits should see this program/documentary by Richard Littlejohn.
The War on Britain’s Jews
“All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism found that violence, desecration of property and intimidation directed against Jews are all on the increase. Richard Littlejohn talks to victims and analysts and argues that antisemitism, once the preserve of the extreme right, now has a foothold among some Muslims and says even elements of the Left are fuelling the fire. P.S. Unfortunately I had to disable comments because some people abused it for hate speech, and Google video lacks the ability to erase them individually. Thank you for your understanding.”
I’m very glad to hear it. The only times I have seen Rabbi Sacks speak he has been scholarly and engaging, but not at all passionate. It is the passion of the Muslims that makes their case so compelling, not the ideas they express. How is it that Jews are so respected in high places in the government and so reviled in Israel? Israel and, I’m guessing, supporters of Israel in the British government are not as adept or inclined to displays of passion or conviction.
Lily Downing – if you had heard the Chief Rabbi tubthumping at a pro-Israel Rally in Trafalgar Square London (as I have), you would only ask that he should do it more often! There was nothing limp or lifeless about him!
I am astonished that Rabbi Sacks has proclaimed a “new anti-semitism!” Certainly he is aware of the Euro-Arab Dialogue began in 1973 with the intent of integrating arab culture into Europe. We are all aware that anti-semitism, or rather anti-Judaism has always been a part of Islamic culture.
Despite certain liberal (I call them “suicidal) political beliefs, I have a great deal of respect for Rabbi Sacks’ intellect and scholarship. Would it be possible for there to be a Co-Chief Rabbi who could attend demonstrations and speak truth loudly to power? Can we imagine a Rabbi with such strong courage of his convictions that he stands tall and declaims the not-so-creeping Islamization of Britain, the ghetto’s the police refrain from policing, the villages that outlaw even piggy banks as offensive to Muslims? If a modern day Judah Maccabee spoke up, would Rabbi Sacks stand square with him?
Intellect has little effect against passion. The Muslims are passionate in their beliefs, their rejection of western civilization. And they are cunning. Britain bows before their passion. Against this, the rabbi’s words fall limp and lifeless like arrows against a shield.
This is nowhere near the best of times for Jews in Europe. It is the best of times for assimlationist, dhimmi Jews in Europe. It is the worst of times for the rest of us.
“A Christian can profess belief while actually not accepting it”!!!??? Er no, unless you are the current President of the United States of America.
Maimonides who wrote that belief in God is the first of the 613 commandments of Judaism. Nachmonides wrote a commentary in which he disagreed, saying it is logically impossible to command a person to believe. Instead, Nachmonides counts living in Israel as the first of the 613 commandments.
Note that the wording is the command to inherit the land. Jews are commanded to live in Israel, raise families, and then the families will raise families in Israel.
Modern man cannot accept the notion that one can be commanded to believe. Judaism differs from Christianity in the sense a Christian can profess belief while actually not accepting it. In Judaism, one must actually believe. Therefore, modern man cannot accept Maimonides’ interpretation. The only way a Jew can be a religious Jew and a rational person is by accepting Nachmonides.
As a young man, I left a professorship, moved to Israel, and raised a family. My children now have many children. This is what a Jew is supposed to do.
We have to be rational people in order to survive. Many religions are irrational and consequently destructive. See the new book Rational Thinking, Government Policies, Science, and Living. Rational thinking starts with clearly stated principles, continues with logical deductions, and then examines empirical evidence to possibly modify the principles. Read the chapter on belief in God.
“And when they came into the nations, whither they came, they profaned My Holy Name, in that the nations said concerning them: These are the people of the L-rd and they are driven forth from the land! But I had pity for My Holy Name which the House of Israel profaned among the nations whither they came. Therefore say unto the House of Israel: Thus saith the L-rd, G-d: I do this not for your sake O House of Israel, but for My Holy Name… And I will sanctify My great Name which hath been profaned among the nations which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the L-rd, saith the L-rd, G-d, WHEN I SHALL BE SANCTIFIED THROUGH YOU BEFORE THEIR EYES. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries and will bring you into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36)
“Israel’s degradation is the desecration of the Name of the L-rd.” (The Biblical commentator Rashi, Ezekiel 39:7)
Everyone supports Israel, including the Antisemites – surprise!!! Antisemites support Israel by being afraid, envious, dismayed, or seething with hatred at her. We Jews could do without that support, but there it is. The Arabs and all Muslims think constantly about Israel and how to destroy it, but they remain obsessed. without respite or freedom. They define themselves in terms of their opposition to Israel. They laugh at tragedies in Israel and they cry and gnash their teeth over their losses – loss of faith, loss of battles and lives, loss of money, loss of face. That is power! We did not ask for this position and that also is why we are so hated. Our centrality came from not caring about whether we were central at all. They hate us, because we do not have to hate them. We can ignore them, but they cannot ignore us.
On a personal note, I am put to shame by Yamit. I am familiar with some of his quotes, yet I live in the Golah, in exile. I am physically comfortable, but spiritually not so much. No more on this personal matter!
Americans already go it alone in their support for Israel. So I am not concerned that Americans will abandon Israel. I speak of the people not the government.
I would be very interested how the honorable Chief rabbi of Britain would answer to the following:
1-The Jewish people is a National-Religious people whose fulfillment of purpose rests in the reclamation of Eretz Yisrael and in the Jewish institutions that govern it. Unique among the nations, only the Jewish people is a people for whom it is a religious and national obligation to establish an independent polity. As important to the physical reclamation of the land is the physical return of the Jewish people to the biblically promised lands of our forefathers.
2-
The Rambam (Mimonides) writes:
It is forbidden at all times to leave Eretz Yisrael for the Diaspora except: to study Torah; to marry; or to save [one’s property] from the gentiles [lit. the worshippers of the stars and signs]. [After accomplishing these ends,] one must return to Eretz Yisrael.
Mishne Torah, Sefer Shoftim, The Laws of Kings and Their Wars, Chapter 5, Halakha 9
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Maimonides continues in the same halakha:
Similarly, one may leave Eretz Yisrael to do business. However, it is forbidden [to leave with the intent] of settling permanently in the Diaspora unless the famine in [the land] is so severe that a dinar’s worth of wheat is sold at two dinars. When do these conditions apply? When one possesses financial resources and food is expensive. However, if food is inexpensive, but a person cannot find financial resources or employment and has no money available, he may leave and go to any place where he can find relief. Although it is permitted to leave [Eretz Yisrael] under these circumstances, it is not pious behavior. Behold, Mahlon and Kilyon were two of the great men of the generation [of Ruth] and they left [Eretz Yisrael] only out of great distress. Nevertheless, they were considered by G-d to be worthy of death.
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Mishne Torah, Sefer Shoftim, The Laws of Kings and Their Wars, Chapter 5, Halakha 11.
The Sages said: The transgressions of one who dwells in Eretz Yisrael are forgiven, as it says: The inhabitant shall not say, ‘I am sick.’ The people who dwell there shall be forgiven for their transgressions. [Isaiah 33:24]
Even one who walks four cubits there will merit the World to Come and one who is buried there receives atonement as though the place in which he is were an altar of atonement, as it says: His land will atone for his people. [D’varim 32:43] [In contrast, the prophet, Amos [Amos 7:17], used the expression] You shall die in an impure land — a prophecy of retribution.
There is no comparison between [the merit of] a person who lives in Eretz Yisrael and one brought there after death [for burial]. Nevertheless, great Sages would bring their dead there. Take an example from our Fathers, Ya’akov and Yosef, the righteous.
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Mishne Torah, Sefer Shoftim, The Laws of Kings and Their Wars, Chapter 5, Halakha 12.
At all times, a person should dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city whose population is primarily of worshippers of idols, rather than dwell in the Diaspora in a city whose population is primarily Jewish.
In that all who leave [the land] for the Diaspora is as though he worships idols, as it is says: They have driven me out today from dwelling in the heritage of G-d, saying, ‘Go serve other gods.’ [Shmuel I 26:19] Similarly, [Ezekiel’s (13:9) prophecies of] retribution state: They shall not come to the Land of Israel.
Just as it is forbidden to leave the Land for the Diaspora, so it is forbidden to leave Bavel for other lands, as it is written: They shall be brought to Bavel and there they shall be [until I take notice of them . . . and restore them to this place, i.e. the Land of Israel]. [Jeremiah 27:22]
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Source Halakha 12:
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The Jew living outside the Land, constitutes the worshipping of idols because doing so denies the foundations of the Torah, i.e., the enactment of the Torah, and the living by the statutes of the Law. The project of enacting the Torah can only be legally accomplished in the Land as defined by the Law.
“Would that all the LORD’S people were prophets, that the LORD would put His spirit upon them!”
– Bamidbar (Numbers) 11:29
I am not bible scholar as is Rabbi Sacks. However I thought that the Torah is telling us a message about what is happening even today. Our long dispersion is steadily coming to an end and we are to be brought back to our native land to fulfill our original mission. Today many of us prefer to remain in the diaspora rather than make aliyah. That is understandable. Perhaps the role of European anti-Semitism today is to prod Jews into leaving and finally returning home. This will deprive Europe of its Jewish assets and strengthen Israel.