Gordon Brown praises UK’s ‘strong, compassionate, devoted’ Jewish community

Gordon Brown has praised Britain’s Jewish community for its capacity to help members of other communities in need, saying it was an example for the whole country.

The former prime minister told Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi at Masorti Judaism, that he had benefitted in office from the advice of Jewish leaders.

He said in a message recorded ahead of the Jewish New Year: “There is no stronger and more compassionate and more devoted to public service a community than the Jewish community, and I have benefitted myself from the advice that has been given

“Rabbi Sacks used to say to me, ‘a society is only strong, when it cares for the weak. It’s only rich when it cares for the poor. It’s only invulnerable when it cares for the vulnerable.’

“And I’ve never forgotten these words.”

He made the remarks during a short conversation with Rabbi Wittenberg about what faith communities can do to improve the multiple crises facing the world today.

Last year Brown published a book, Seven Ways to Change the World: How To Fix The Most Pressing Problems We Face, that considers issues ranging from health care and climate change to poverty and inequality.

“What the Jewish community has done in helping people in need, the whole of the country has got to do to help each other get through this crisis,” Brown said.

“The whole of the world has somehow got to find a way to come together to be able to deal with the multiple emergencies that are causing so much distress in every part of the world.”

You can watch the full message to Masorti Judaism from Gordon Brown here: