VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS: Five Interfaith ticks and a Galloway
Interfaith observers are struggling to make sense of the past few weeks.
This week they heard a Christian leader address Jewish concerns by speaking out vehemently against anti-Semitism and an anti-Israel clergyman.
Tick.
One week earlier, anti-extremist organisation Faith Matters, which is dedicated to encouraging understanding between faiths, “warmly welcomed” a top rabbi as its new Patron.
Tick.
Before that, Jewish and Muslim leaders taught teenagers about the twin horrors of Srebrenica and the Holocaust, on their 20th and 70th anniversaries respectively. And before that, British Muslim leaders supported the British Jewish community after an Islamist gunman killed four Jewish customers in Paris.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Love was in the air, but with love so often comes heartbreak, and cracks began to appear last week, when Jewish and Christian leaders held an off-radar meeting.
They were at loggerheads over a church publication featuring a Jewish addict who turned to Jesus and a Palestinian who couldn’t get an Israeli visa while a Jewish American could.
A terse statement following the face-to-face fooled no one. Elsewhere, and very much on-radar, BBC’s Question Time was filmed Finchley and Golders Green, where anti-Israel politician George Galloway MP incurred the wrath of a boisterous audience he then accused of being both one-sided and ethnically homogenous.
“There was not a single Muslim person in the audience even though there are 50,000 Muslims in the borough,” he said, in obvious reference to the kippot on show.
While highly unlikely to be true, the rowdy Finchley faithful made it seem so, playing into the hands of a self-styled political martyr. It was far from our proudest moment.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Faith Matters then dropped Rabbi Yitzhak Schochet of Mill Hill shul over a tweet suggesting Palestinian supporters might hang themselves with his Israeli flag.
It was a good week, in short, for the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) to hold a seminar on trust.
So, what state interfaith relations? Despite the headlines, there’s more good news than bad [partly why we launched a dedicated interfaith section on our website]. And, despite the disagreements, we have more in common than not.
Witness the simultaneous uproar from Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders when the BBC this week said it was axing its Head of Religion post as the perfect example.
Trust the Beeb to bring unity through anger.
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.
