No more separate corners – division is a luxury we can no longer afford
Sunday’s rally showed that unity across religious and political lines may not be comfortable, but it has never been more necessary
As I stood in Whitehall in front of the black iron gates at the entrance to Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, watching the crowds dissipate, I felt a mixture of relief and pride. Relief that the rally against antisemitism and extremism, which I had been asked to co-chair barely a week earlier, had been a success. And pride that so many of our community and some non-Jewish friends had come together to show solidarity and to reflect the strength of feeling against the current challenges to our Jewish way of life in the UK.
There has been no greater threat to our community, certainly not in my lifetime, and we wanted the rally to bring home the fact that what we are seeing is against British values. We wanted to make clear to the rest of Britain that what is happening to our small and increasingly vulnerable community is unacceptable and not what we as a country should be about.
The very British location of the rally was deliberate. The understated buildings which house the machinery of government heard our cry. Jews do count.
We are a diverse community rich in our views, but the issue of antisemitism is important to us all. It threatens the rich and diverse life that we as British Jews have been privileged to live.
Our enemies do not differentiate between us; they have firebombed both reform and orthodox synagogues, vandalised both our businesses and charities and attacked both outwardly looking and secular Jews. The only way we can hope to tackle this stain on British values is by coming together and working as a community.
We cannot let our differences divide us, and we cannot let our enemies divide us; too much is at stake.
I make no apologies for inviting politicians from across the spectrum. We cannot thrive as a community unless we listen to those who are in power and to those who may one day be in power
On Sunday, the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of Deputies and Campaign Against Antisemitism came together. The Movement for Progressive Judaism, the United Synagogue and the Chief Rabbi stood together. All alongside leaders from other faiths and politicians of different hues. The Jewish News and Jewish Chronicle even published a joint editorial in support of the rally.
There were a multitude of different voices and opinions expressed, some of which I am sure did not sit comfortably with everyone that attended. But that’s okay. What mattered was that those who came along were prepared to listen not just to the views of those with whom they agreed but also to those on different parts of the political and religious spectrum.
Everyone will have taken something different out of Sunday. I know there were speakers that some people liked, and there were those that were more difficult to listen to.
Which speaker fell into which category will have depended on your own politics. The fact that some in the crowd expressed vocal dismay at what has been allowed to happen over the last couple of years is understandable.
None of this really matters. What does matter is that we came together as a community, and we were joined by friends and allies from the non-Jewish world, who for those 90 minutes stood with us; we are very grateful to them for their support.
By inviting such a broad range of speakers, we were not asking anyone to set aside their own political, religious or ethical convictions; we were asking for something harder. We were asking our community to be open-minded and to recognise that antisemitism exists in many different parts of British society. It is not just an issue on the right or on the left. It is not just about Islamist extremism but also something that has infected mainstream discourse. Tolerance and understanding have to start in our own community if we are to ask the same of others.
I make no apologies for bringing us together. I make no apologies for inviting politicians from across the spectrum. We cannot thrive as a community unless we listen to those who are in power and to those who may one day be in power. I stand by my belief that this is not a time for division and personal convictions.
Too much is at stake, and if we don’t come together now, then I fear that in the not-too-distant future we will not have a community that can stand together.
Most importantly, I want to thank our fellow participants, both from within the Jewish community and outside, for seeing that together we are stronger, for putting aside their own personal values, and for understanding that something much bigger is at stake.
I also urge members of our community not to return to their separate corners, but to build on something we have started as a real community. As a community that is resilient and unified, we will be much harder to defeat.
- Louise Jacobs is the vice-chair of the Jewish Leadership Council
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