Rabbi Lord Sacks: ‘Efforts to help others like wartime spirit’
Former Chief Rabbi told Newsnight that 'although bad events can bring the worst out in us, they also bring out the best'
Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has said people’s efforts to help others during the coronavirus pandemic are “a little like the wartime spirit”.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis on Wednesday, Sacks struck a somewhat hopeful note, saying that although bad events “can bring the worst out in us, they also bring out the best”.
Speaking about an emergent sense of collective responsibility, he said: “We are going to see more and more of this as time goes on. We are going to see a renewal of the ‘we,’ of the country.”
The peer said the world’s focus on a common problem may have a positive effect. “I do think this split attention, with everyone looking at something different – that has so disaggregated us as a culture – is going to change,” he said.
“We’re all watching the same news, reacting in pretty much the same way. So although we’re not physically together, mentally and emotionally, we will be. Physical isolation will go hand-in-hand with an emotional and even moral sense of solidarity.”
"I think we're going to be tried, as the nation was tried during WWII."
Former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks tells @maitlis the country will get through #Covid19 "feeling a much stronger sense of identification with others"
WATCH: https://t.co/gxsdKqsO2m#Newsnight | @rabbisacks pic.twitter.com/1hxwdvIXbL
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 19, 2020
Asked about the urge to meet family physically, the former Chief Rabbi said it was important not to expose them to potential risk. “We’re going to come through this, whether it takes three months, or six months, or more, we’re going to come through it safe and alive. That is the most important thing.”
On the subject of conducting funerals during the pandemic, Sacks said: “I did one just two days ago. It was heart-breaking. We had a very, very small attendance, everyone keeping their distance. This was somebody who died who would have had many, many hundreds [of people attending].
“The family was heart-broken, not just at the grief but with the inability of others to join in that grief, but they know perfectly well that they had to restrict it, and say ‘when all this is over we will remember, we will come together. This is not something that is going to last forever.”
He added: “We will be tried just we were tried during the war, but thank heavens not through war, not through terror. I mean this is awful but it could have been so much more awful. We’re coming to come through this feeling a much stronger sense of identification with others, a much stronger commitment to helping others. This, in a tragic way, is probably the lesson we needed as a nation and as a world.”
Sacks said he felt the degree of globalisation that had been seen before the pandemic would be unlikely to return, with nations weening themselves off foreign dependence, which he said would benefit those “left behind by globalisation”.
Watch the interview in full here:
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.