Rabbis’ fears over ‘dangerous’ politics
CHIEF RABBI Ephraim Mirvis has labelled Donald Trump a “racist”, outlining his concerns about the US election campaign.
The Chief Rabbi, who was speaking to columnist Emma Barnett on her BBC Radio Five Live show last Thursday, said Mr Trump “unfortunately is a racist, somebody who deeply offended many people.
“However, Trump as president hopefully will be a different character and time will tell what the Trump presidency will be about.”
Rabbi Mirvis added: “I would stress that the Trump presidency is not going to be like what we’ve seen from Trump in the lead up to his election.
“Unfortunately, though, as a candidate he has set a tone which has presented a danger to our society, and if he continues with that tone as president, then it’s going to be all the more dangerous.”
Lord Sacks, the Emeritus Chief Rabbi, meanwhile warned of the dangers of the “politics of anger” and outlined his desire to see a new politics built on “capitalism with a human face”.
Writing in the he said this year’s events were “not politics as usual.
“The American Presidential election, the Brexit vote and the rise of extremism in the politics of the West are warnings of something larger, and the sooner we realise it, the better.
“What we are witnessing is the birth of a new politics of anger. It is potentially very dangerous indeed.”
Lord Sacks warned anger was “a mood, not a strategy, and it can make things worse not better.
“Anger never solves problems, it merely inflames them.
“The danger down the road, as it has been throughout history, is the demand for authoritarian leadership, which is the beginning of the end of the free society.”
He said the first step was to recognise “how bad” things were, with many people failing to benefit from economic growth.
A politics of hope was, he said, “within our reach. But to create it we will have to find ways of strengthening families and communities, building a culture of collective responsibility and insisting on an economics of the common good.
“This is no longer a matter of party politics. It is about the very viability of the freedom for which the West fought for so long and hard.”
On Sunday Lord Sacks spoke at the Jewish Federations of North America conference in Washington DC.
He is a racist who deeply offended many people’