10/29/07

Chief Rabbi Wraps Self in the Union Jack

I thought that the idea was that the chief rabbi teach Judaism, represent Jews and give trite sermons. I'm just not comfortable at all with this kind of preaching by the British CR.

JTA: Far right praises British chief rabbi

A new book by Britain's chief rabbi has received accolades from the far right for his views on multiculturalism.

In "The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society," released on Oct. 25, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks writes that multiculturalism encourages individual ethnic groups to define themselves as victims and has led to segregation instead of integration.

After excerpts of the book were printed in the London Times, message boards for far right groups such as Stormfront White Nationalist Community included comments saying that Sacks' work was helping them out "big time" even though he was a Jew.

Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, Britain's most mainstream and organized far-right political party, called the book "important and welcome."

But London's Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, a strong supporter of Britain's Jewish community, criticized the work, saying that attacks on multiculturalism feed on ignorance about other cultures and religious faiths, which can lead to intolerance. Other human rights groups have accused the chief rabbi of making the statements merely to garner publicity for the book.

In his defense, Sacks told the Jewish News in London that he saw multiculturalism as a form of separation and stressed that he was proposing the creation of a unifying culture, calling for a "national Britishness day."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't it stink when someone from "your wing", but from the extreme end of your wing, latches onto an idea of yours, and others -- from the other wing - use that to lump you all together?

Anonymous said...

Hi
Sorry to be out of sequence.
in re YU and the Berger problem
- You seem to have missed the actual first article and start of it.
A student named Joel Shteir wrote the first article. That took a lot of guts.
- and the YU Commentator - dirty trick - sent it to Berger a week before they went to press, and lo and behold, there was Berger's nasty huge "response" right up there, too!
The Laskner article you have came much after the Shteir one.
Go and look at the "discussion".
Berger's Jihad, mostly YU administration, as you coined the term, are coming off like a bunch of jerks. Lamm et al.
The link to the original article is under my name.
It would be great if you were to check in with him. He is at Sy Syms.
Do I sound like a proud mom?