When 2,000 voices cried Dayenu
WHY IS this night different to all other nights?
On all other nights, we discuss the insidious nature of Labour antisemitism while sitting in our own homes. But on this night — or Monday night, to be exact — we stood in front of Parliament and made our voices heard.
Jews are not among the world’s greatest protestors. We may kvetch a fair amount, but organised protests are not our forté. So the fact that 2,000 people showed up with around 48 hour’s notice, in the run-up to Pesach, is a testament to the strength of feeling surrounding this issue.
None of what the speakers said was new — but it was not meant to be new; the very fact it was not new added to the anger that nothing had been done about it.
With different words, they all said the same thing; that it was deeply encouraging to see how many people had turned up to the protest, but deeply shameful that such a protest was deemed necessary.
There was anger in the audience directed at the leader of the Labour party. Richard Angell, the head of Labour’s centrist Progress group and one of many non-Jews in attendance to show their support for the community, noted that “it’s sad that we found the only rally that Jeremy Corbyn won’t speak at.”
When John Mann MP suggested that Mr Corbyn could [if he wished] throw all antisemites out of the party tonight, a number of people in the crowd yelled: “Starting with himself.”
One protestor held a muchadmired sign saying “No place for antisemites in Labour – They’re already oversubscribed.”
Rabbi Avrohom Pinter was in attendance, at least in part, he said,
because of something that had happened almost two years ago. In June 2016, as Mr Corbyn entered the room where the publication event of the ill-fated Chakrabarti report was to take place, he noticed Rabbi Pinter, a Labour member whom he had met in the past. A photograph was taken of them shaking hands — and ever since, it has been used by some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters to try and “prove” his eagerness to combat antisemitism.
“I love Israel, but I’m not a Zionist,” said Rabbi Pinter, who is Strictly Orthodox. A former Labour councillor, he described “the toxic atmosphere” within the party.
“I’ve been called a Zionist agent, I’ve been told I’m in the pay of the Israeli embassy, at a general committee. The people claiming this has to do with anti-Zionism [rather than antisemitism] — I’m not a Zionist, and I feel the hate.”
At the periphery of the crowd stood a small group of those on the periphery of the community; Jewish Voice for Labour, the group which takes a “nothing to see here, guv” approach to the overwhelming examples of Labour antisemitism.
One of the signs held by the participants said “Jewish Voice for Labour” on the one side, and “Stop Smearing Labour,” on the other.
But there was no sense from any of the people I talked to that the JVL should not be there.
“It’s a free country,” said Lee Barnett. “People are entitled to be idiots. I’m not entirely sure they could make themselves look bigger idiots than they are doing, but I’ve got faith.”
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism, said that though he did “not agree with what some of the minority group says, I’m glad they’re here.
“Because the capacity to discuss, debate and actually be open and fair to difference is exactly what we’re saying Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum are not. So it’s a strength.”