Always speak up

The Chief Rabbi’s decision to speak out over Labour antisemitism was necessary and important. The stakes are too high for any Jewish leader to remain silent. But while there are some in our community who have objected to his intervention, he speaks for the overwhelming majority. The objections of the Corbyn supporters who deny that there is any issue with Labour antisemitism should be ignored; not only are they wrong, their attempts to portray the Jewish community as significantly divided are an outrageous distortion. There are, however, other objections which are more serious — one of which is that it is dangerous for faith leaders to involve themselves in politics. As a general principle, this is correct. Indeed the Chief Rabbi recognised this himself in his Times article. As he writes, however, “challenging racism in all its forms is not a matter of politics, it goes well beyond that.”

Far from staying silent, it is surely the duty of a faith leader to confront racism — exactly as Chief Rabbi Mirvis has done. There is a further objection which is more worrying. The traditional modus operandi of AngloJewry in the face of controversy was to keep quiet — to speak behind closed doors but to avoid upsetting anyone with confrontation. That has changed. The ‘Enough Is Enough’ rally was a turning point, showing a community that was not prepared to remain silent. But some have reacted to the Chief Rabbi’s intervention by warning that it will somehow rebound on Jews should Labour lose — that we will be blamed and suffer a backlash. That is a ludicrous argument for staying silent, as if the likelihood that a racist will behave as a racist means that the racist should not be confronted with their racism. There is not much positive to come from these past four years. But Anglo-Jewry’s determination to confront our enemies is one of them.