"The Hate That Begins With Jews Never Ends With Jews"
I’ve been doing Thought for the Day for thirty years but I never thought that in 2018 I would still have to speak about antisemitism.
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Thought for the Day, 20th April 2018)
Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, MBE (Hebrew: Yaakov Zvi, יעקב צבי; born 8 March 1948) is a British Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, author and politician.
He served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the UK, he was the Chief Rabbi of those Orthodox synagogues, but was not recognized as the religious authority for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or for the progressive movements such as Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism. As Chief Rabbi, Sacks formally carried the title of Av Beit Din (head) of the London Beth Din. He is now known as the Emeritus Chief Rabbi.
Since stepping down as Chief Rabbi, in addition to his international travelling and speaking engagements and prolific writing, Sacks has served as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He has also been appointed as Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King's College London.
He won the Templeton Prize for 2016.
The author of 25 books, Sacks has published commentaries on the daily Jewish prayer book siddur and has completed commentaries to the Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Pesach festival prayer-books (machzorim) as of 2017. His most recent secular book—The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning—was published in July 2011. A number of his books have won literary awards, including the Grawemeyer Prize for Religion in 2004 for The Dignity of Difference, and a National Jewish Book Award in 2000 for A Letter in the Scroll. Covenant & Conversation: Genesis was also awarded a National Jewish Book Award in 2009, and most recently his commentary to the Pesach festival prayer book won the Modern Jewish Thought and Experience Dorot Foundation Award in the 2013 National Jewish Book Awards in America. His Covenant & Conversation commentaries on the weekly Torah portion are read by thousands of people in Jewish communities around the world.
Sacks' contributions to wider British society have also been recognised. A regular contributor to national media, frequently appearing on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day or writing the Credo column or opinion pieces in The Times, Sacks was awarded The Sanford St Martin's Trust Personal Award for 2013 for "his advocacy of Judaism and religion in general". He was invited to the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton as a representative of the Jewish community.
At a Gala Dinner held in Central London in May 2013 to mark the completion of the Chief Rabbi's time in office, HRH The Prince of Wales called Sacks a "light unto this nation", "a steadfast friend" and "a valued adviser" whose "guidance on any given issue has never failed to be of practical value and deeply grounded in the kind of wisdom that is increasingly hard to come by".
(Wikipedia)
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Thought for the Day, 20th April 2018)
I’ve been doing Thought for the Day for thirty years but I never thought that in 2018 I would still have to speak about antisemitism. I was part of that generation, born after the Holocaust, who believed the nations of the world when they said: Never again.
But this week, there was an unprecedented debate about antisemitism in Parliament. Several MPs spoke emotionally about the abuse they’d received because they were Jews, or more scarily, because they’d fought antisemitism. According to the Community Security Trust, antisemitic incidents in Britain have risen to their highest level since record keeping began in 1984, at an average of 4 a day. This is not the Britain I know and love.
In Paris, a month ago, just before Passover, an 85 year old Holocaust survivor was murdered because she was a Jew, the most harrowing in a whole series of such attacks in Europe in recent years. There is today almost no European country where Jews feel safe, and this within living memory of the Holocaust in which one and a half million children were murdered simply because their grandparents were Jews.
It’s happened because of the rise of political extremism on the right and left, and because of populist politics that plays on people’s fears, seeking scapegoats to blame for social ills. For a thousand years Jews have been targeted as scapegoats, because they were a minority and because they were different. But difference is what makes us human. And a society that has no room for difference has no room for humanity.
The appearance of antisemitism is always an early warning sign of a dangerous dysfunction within a culture, because the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.
At the end of his life, Moses told the Israelites: don’t hate an Egyptian because you were strangers in his land. It’s an odd sentence. The Egyptians had oppressed and enslaved the Israelites. So why did Moses say, don’t hate.
Because if the people continued to hate, Moses would have taken the Israelites out of Egypt, but failed to take Egypt out of the Israelites. They would still be slaves, not physically but mentally. Moses knew that to be free you have to let go of hate. Wherever there is hate, freedom dies. Which is why each of us, especially we leaders, have to take a stand against the corrosive power of hate.
All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. Today I see too many good people doing nothing and I am ashamed.
- See also Rabbi Sacks' article:
THE MUTATION OF ANTISEMITISM
| The Right Honourable The Lord Sacks | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth | |
| In office 1 September 1991 – 1 September 2013 | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Jakobovits |
| Succeeded by | Ephraim Mirvis |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Assumed office 1 September 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jonathan Henry Sacks 8 March 1948 Lambeth, London, England |
| Political party | Crossbench |
| Spouse(s) | Elaine Taylor Sacks |
| Children | Joshua, Dina and Gila |
| Alma mater | Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge New College, Oxford King's College London |
| Awards | Canterbury Medal Templeton Prize |
| Semicha | Jews' College and Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London) |
| Website | http://rabbisacks.org/ |
He served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the UK, he was the Chief Rabbi of those Orthodox synagogues, but was not recognized as the religious authority for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or for the progressive movements such as Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism. As Chief Rabbi, Sacks formally carried the title of Av Beit Din (head) of the London Beth Din. He is now known as the Emeritus Chief Rabbi.
Since stepping down as Chief Rabbi, in addition to his international travelling and speaking engagements and prolific writing, Sacks has served as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He has also been appointed as Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King's College London.
He won the Templeton Prize for 2016.
Sacks' contributions to wider British society have also been recognised. A regular contributor to national media, frequently appearing on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day or writing the Credo column or opinion pieces in The Times, Sacks was awarded The Sanford St Martin's Trust Personal Award for 2013 for "his advocacy of Judaism and religion in general". He was invited to the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton as a representative of the Jewish community.
At a Gala Dinner held in Central London in May 2013 to mark the completion of the Chief Rabbi's time in office, HRH The Prince of Wales called Sacks a "light unto this nation", "a steadfast friend" and "a valued adviser" whose "guidance on any given issue has never failed to be of practical value and deeply grounded in the kind of wisdom that is increasingly hard to come by".
(Wikipedia)
