The fight back begins

I've been on a bit of a blog break during August,for obvious reasons, namely because of having to look after my children, alongside the usual stuff that I do, whilst they were not at school due the summer holidays. Now that they are back at school, I have more time to write out blog posts.

The summer months have been difficult for Jews in Europe, as they always are whenever the middle east Arab- Israeli conflict spills over into open conflict. We have the sights of mass rallies directed not just against Israel, but seemingly against Jews as well(or at least that is how it feels) . In France there was more or less several pogroms and in Britain we even had kosher food being removed from a supermarket shelf because of the fear the store would be trashed otherwise. This may sound minor, except this is liberal, tolerant, multicultural Britain we are talking about, a country which has always been tolerant towards Jews, at least since the 17th century when we returned to this country( it was the Sephardi who first settled here). 

Then there have been the increasing antisemitism, the verbal and physical abuse, the intellectual attacks on Israel, the lack of appreciation as to what and why Israel has to fight. There was also a feeling that our community leaders were not speaking out more and when they did, they messed up(as in the recent furore over the board of deputies / Muslims council joint statement).

I was therefore relived to hear that there was going to be a demo against antisemitism in London last Sunday. Representatives of the whole British Jewish community attended the rally, which about 5,000 attended, Jews of various stripes, differences temporarily forgotten, as well as Christians & non Jews. I am glad we are starting to fight back against this antisemitism, which is simply not acceptable. I'm saddened that we even have to do this nowadays.

I have put a video of the rally which includes highlights of the speeches given, including  the Azshkenazi chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis,Senior Reform Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner & most passionately,the new Senior Sephardi Rabbi Joseph Dweck .

Kol hakavod