Quote of the day 6th November 2019

"It is a horrifying reality that in 2019, Jewish communities across the world live in fear of violent terror attacks. The traumatic scenes outside of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, or the recent attack on the Halle synagogue in Germany, are ones we fear being repeated in the UK.

When a kosher shop became a target in France’s wave of terror attacks in 2015, it struck a raw chord with many in Britain’s Jewish community. I recall the Friday night sabbath dinner conversation —
  • What if I had been one of those hostages? 
  • How worrying that it is only the small English Channel separating us from the wave of terror against Jewish communities in Europe? 

This fear only increased with the stabbings of Jews outside a synagogue in Marseille later that year and the subsequent murders in Paris of Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll in further antisemitic incidents.

I recently enrolled my daughter at a nursery school based at a synagogue. Upon visiting the nursery — as much as I wanted to meet the staff, see the space and learn about the daily schedule — the thing I spent the most time checking-out was the security set-up for the building.

From the age of one, my daughter will be attending daycare with a guard at the front door and constant security presence.

That is not the desires of an over-protective parent — it is a necessary precaution of 21st century Jewish life. In this environment, the Jewish community relies on a supportive government who understand and sympathise with these very real security threats — a government that will help overcome any administrative or regulatory hurdles to protecting Jewish community centres, schools and places of worship.

I can recall hearing this support loud and clear from successive political party leaders over the past decades, whether Labour, Conservative or Lib Dems. I have never once heard Jeremy Corbyn utter his commitment.

In fact, when I searched out looking to find and consolation that Jeremy Corbyn might understand the nature of anti-Jewish terrorism, I only found the opposite.

Down the road from my home is a Jewish community building named Balfour House. I recall visiting it as a teenager when taking part in a youth volunteering programme. In 1994, the building was bombed in an antisemitic incident, and one backbench MP spent the subsequent years campaigning for the release of two of the terrorist attackers. His name was Jeremy Corbyn."


(Rob Mindell, extract from an article on the "Medium" website which you can read in full here.)

Comments

Gary Bullivant said…
We are fortunate indeed that Mr Corbyn isn't going to be standing for election in the Copeland Constituency and I'm sure that Mr Lywood will be ready to challenge robustly any evidence there is that he is in any way anti-semitic or sympathetic to anti-semites.
Chris Whiteside said…
Neither I nor Rob Mindell made such an allegation against the Labour candidate in Copeland.

But a vote for him, or for any other Labour candidate, is a vote to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister.

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