The Board of Deputies of British Jews

9 Sivan 5773

18 May 2013

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3 great reasons for an anti-Jewish screed
by Natan Levy posted in Israel and Abroad

Fascinating blog by our Interfaith Consultant Rabbi Natan Levy on Church of Scotlands Inheritance of Abraham? report. Read More

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Board Interfaith and Social Action Consultant launches course
by Natan Levy posted in Interfaith and Social Action

The Boards Interfaith and Social Action Consultant Rabbi Natan Levy is soon starting a course on the modern applications of the Jewish Sabbatical year, when the land of Israel gets a year of rest. Read More

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The cruel cut of the progressive-Christian boycott
by Natan Levy posted in Israel and Abroad

Here�s a quiz for you readers: Before boycotting West Bank settlement goods in 2011, when was the last time the UK branch of the Quakers, or Society of Friends as they prefer to be titled, decided to implement a boycott? As the Board\'s Interfaith Consultant Rabbi Natan Levy explains, one has to travel back in history for the answer... Read More

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Thy Fearful Symmetry-The New Language of Nazification of Israel
by Natan Levy posted in Interfaith and Social Action

The suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust is increasingly being used as a stick in which to beat Israel- and Jews- today. As well as being deeply hurtful and misguided, it may tell us something about the psyche of some of those who seek to make that link. Read More

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by Graham Thompson - on 05-Feb-2013
The UK isn't a christian country anymore, and UK cultural trends to not originate in meetings of the General Synod. Your christian friends are just following the lead of western civilisation more generally - horror at the treatment of the Palestinians. When we see something horrific, we have a tendency to liken it to Nazism - this is a well-known and widely mocked phenomenon. Clearly, in the case of the Israeli/Palestinian situation, Nazi analogies are significantly more loaded, and should be approached with more care. However, the idea that they are popular due to christian guilt is absurd - no-one in my family is christian, but they're all horrified by Gaza and the actions of the Israeli government.

by Noru Tsalic - on 06-Feb-2013
@Graham Thompson You say: "When we see something horrific, we have a tendency to liken it to Nazism - this is a well-known and widely mocked phenomenon". Actually, it isn't. It is very seldom that Holocaust & Nazi comparisons are made -- save for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Not even GENUINELY horrific things are typically compared to the Holocaust. Not even clear-cut instances of genocide -- see Cambodia, Rwanda, Congo, Bosnia. North Korea is full of REAL concentration camps, where hundreds of thousands are worked to death. Its leaders are called many things, but they are not likened to the Nazis. Nor is the Nazi comparison used for Assad, who has butchered 60,000 people (and counting). No, Nazi analogies are "reserved" for use against Jews, precisely because then they are "significantly more loaded". The Rabbi is right: there is a component of guilt (not necessarily "Christian guilt" in the religious sense). But there is something else, too: people who use the analogy know that it is extremely hurtful to Jews. They WANT to hurt -- as much as possible. The analogy is a product of prejudice & hatred. Just like being "horrified by Gaza" much more than by Rwanda, Darfur, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, etc. etc. etc. Or by this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/03/fayhan-al-ghamdi-_n_2610841.html?utm_hp_ref=world

by Anthony Jacobs - on 06-Feb-2013
Rabbi Levy misses the main point. There has not ever been a single 'nazi like' atrocity by Jews against any Arabs. There are many slanders and libels by Israels enemies, but nothing has ever been proved, even for a body like The Red Cresent, let alone the Internation Red Cross. There has never been any ethnic cleansing of Arabs by Jews. Arab Israelis have full and equal civil rights in a liberal western democracy. Jewish Arabs (910,000 of them), were ethnically cleansed from communities established up to a thousand years before the birth of Islam. All the alleged atrocities by Israel against Arabs, that have sped around the world and elicited widespread and vitriolic condemnation, have ultimately proved to be vicious lies. The learned rabbi may want to ask why so many of his Christian associates are so eager to embrace patently false anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda, yet so reluctant to hold the haters of all religions to any real moral or ethical standard? Why is it that only Jews need to be perfect Christians?

by Tim Smith - on 08-Feb-2013
As far as I am aware, there is no policy of mass extermination of Arabs in Israel. And on that point any comparison with the Nazis is entirely fatuous and divisive.

by Graham Thompson - on 11-Feb-2013

by Graham Thompson - on 11-Feb-2013
@Noru Tsalic "You say: "When we see something horrific, we have a tendency to liken it to Nazism - this is a well-known and widely mocked phenomenon". Actually, it isn't. It is very seldom that Holocaust & Nazi comparisons are made" Godwin's law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies[1][2]) is an argument made by Mike Godwin in 1990[2] that has become an Internet adage. It states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."[2][3] In other words, Godwin observed that, given enough time, in any online discussion�regardless of topic or scope�someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law Holocaust and Nazi comparisons are the most common comparisons made on the internet. Everyone knows this, that's why it's widely mocked.

Lessons to be learnt on a trip to Belfast
by Natan Levy posted in Interfaith and Social Action

In this blog the Board�s Interfaith Consultant, Rabbi Natan Levy, reflects on his recent trip to Belfast. He considers what lessons, if any, can be learnt from Northern Ireland to inform our approach to the Middle East. Read More

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Dialogue with Black Clergy
by Natan Levy posted in Interfaith and Social Action

This week the Board of Deputies hosted a dialogue between Rabbis and Black Clergy, a continuation of a long running process of engagement between the two faith groups during which race and faith sow the seeds of an intriguing dialogue. Click here to read more. Read More

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