Address to Board of Deputies of British Jews
21 September 2003

The Chief Rabbi began with the following prayer:

"Heavenly Father, source of all blessings, send Your blessing to the President, Honorary Officers and Members of the Board of Deputies. Bestow on them Your wisdom as they gather to do Your will, seeking the welfare of Your people, and striving to be a blessing to others. Guide them in their deliberations, be with them in all they do and put into their hearts the love of righteousness and justice, compassion and truth so that they may be faithful to Your teachings and bring honour to Your name. May You grant blessings to the work of their hands as leaders and guardians of our community. May You spread over us and all humanity the tabernacle of Your peace so that we may live together, respecting each other and seeking one another's good, bringing closer the day when all mankind is blessed by Your presence, as it is said "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. On that day shall the Lord be One and His name One". Amen

Friends, may I begin by saying thank you? Thank you for your tireless work on behalf of your community. May I wish you blessing and success in all you do, because your blessing is ours as a community, and on your success ours as a community depends.

We are fortunate to have an institution like the Board of Deputies. But we are all too seldom aware how fortunate we are, and even more seldom do we say so. Let me therefore say so now. Thank you to the Board for all you do. Let me particularly wish blessing and success to your new President, Henry Grunwald QC, an outstanding asset not only to the Board but to our entire community. Henry is blessed with seichel tov, a clear penetrating intelligence. He senses the needs of the hour without forgetting the call of eternity. He speaks well and wisely - and more briefly than I do. More importantly, he has that one gift we prize even more than seichel tov -- Ve-nimtza chein ve-seichel tov -- Henry is a man of chein, grace. He is one about whom Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa spoke when he said, "One in whom other people take delight is one in whom the Almighty takes delight". Henry: your graciousness, your determination to work with all sections of the community, your patience and wisdom are a blessing to us all. May we wish you and your family a ketivah ve-chatimah tovah.

Likewise to you, the members of the Board: You have striven - and I know will continue to strive - to serve the community in faithfulness. Let me say to you what I sometimes say to myself. Why do we take on roles within the Jewish community which subject us to constant criticism? Because if we did so for popularity, we would be acting shelo lishma, for ulterior motives, which is not the way to serve the Almighty or the Jewish people. Because we are all so prone to act for popularity, the Almighty in His infinite wisdom arranged that no Jewish leader should ever have the gift of popularity. The result is that at least we know, in that lovely phrase of Maimonides (whose 800th anniversary we celebrate next year) that we strive to do what is right because it is right and for no other reason. You collectively have done just that. The Board is a fine institution, and you are outstanding representatives of Anglo-Jewry. Therefore for you all and your families, may the coming year be for you and for them and for all Israel, especially our brothers and sisters in the land of Israel, a year of blessing, health and success, above all a year of Shalom al Israel.

I want today to touch on three inter-related issues: (1) the state of the Jewish world; (2) what follows from that insofar as the Board of Deputies, its task and its role are concerned; and (3) briefly, to say what I believe to be the command of this hour for the Jewish people worldwide.

First, the state of the Jewish world. I love the story about two friends who meet after many years. One says to the other, "Moshe, tell me in one word how are you?" Moshe replies, "In one word? Good." The other says, "Alright, tell me in two words." And Moshe says, "In two words? Not good". That is the state of the Jewish world today. It is a time of trouble and distress. These are dark and difficult times.

For three years Israel has been under attack - not as in 1973 or 1967 or 1948, an attack on the battlefield, but something far worse. An attack on the buses of Haifa, the discos of Tel Aviv, the coffee bars and restaurants of Jerusalem. This has been a sustained assault not on Israel's soldiers, but on its citizens - the young, the old, the innocent, the uninvolved. It has been a reversion not to Israel's wars but to the campaigns of 1936 and 1929, when a determined attempt was made to destroy the very possibility of a normal life for Jews in the only land on earth they have known as their collective home.

When a war is fought on a battlefield, soldiers become heroes. But when terror is played out in the streets and shops and cities and towns in an attempt to create panic and despair, it is not just soldiers but every single Israeli - adults and children alike - who becomes a hero, showing that ultimate existential strength that the theologian Paul Tillich called "the courage to be". Simply to be - to carry on day by day, not giving in to panic, not yielding to terror, refusing to grant the men and women of death their victory. That is the courage we call Gevurah. Not Koach, the courage of the battlefield but Gevurah, the inner moral strength of a courageous people.

At this significant moment in the Jewish year, let a message go forth from this meeting on behalf of the Anglo-Jewish community, to our brothers and sisters in Israel: We salute your bravery, refusing to be intimidated by terror, refusing even more remarkably to give up hope despite every attempt by your enemies to show that they will never make peace with Israel. Israel, by refusing to give up hope that one day there will be peace, shows true courage. Let us say loudly and clearly: Israel is a great, strong and invincible people.

What makes the situation far worse is that Israel's enemies have attempted to place it not only in physical crisis but also in a moral, even a spiritual, crisis. Israel, having spent almost ten years pursuing peace, and having been prepared to make massive concessions for the sake of peace, having even seen one of its Prime Ministers forfeit his life for peace, is seen today by large sections of the world as the aggressor - as if it wanted any of this, the violence, the almost 1,000 lives of its citizens lost, the thousands injured, the families shattered and bereaved; as if it wanted any of the fatalities or casualties on the other side either; as if Israelis danced in the street when their enemies died - Heaven forbid that a Jew should ever do such a thing; as if Israel would ever celebrate the martyrdom of their own children, giving up their lives in order to kill for their faith. Heaven forbid.

Let us therefore commit ourselves in the coming year to do what we can, when we can, in whichever way we can, to make Israel's case and to do so not on the basis of propaganda but out of simple respect for the truth. Let us, in particular, articulate that fundamental principle which should be self-evident but is almost never remembered by people in the media and politics, that conflict is not a zero-sum game. It is not a situation in which victory for one side means defeat for the other. It is not a win/lose equation. To the contrary: from peace both sides gain, from violence both sides lose. Therefore what we must say is: stop seeing this as a partisan cause, a rivalry, a contest in which one has to take sides. Stop fanning the flames of hate, whether you care for Israeli children or for Palestinian children or both. Just care for children, whoever they are. The only way to give them a future is peace. Therefore let us stop arguing; let us join hands and work together for peace. There is no other way.

However, there is more at stake in Israel and the Middle East than matters of concern to Israel and the Middle East. As we know to our cost, hostility has a way of spilling over from Israel to Jews, from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism. Let me therefore be very clear in what I say. Too often public debate is careless in its use of language. To use language precisely, to make distinctions, is in Judaism a religious imperative. At the end of every Shabbat we perform a ritual called Havdalah entirely dedicated to the act of making distinctions. In our prayers, we put the passage relating to havdalah in the paragraph of the Amidah in which we pray to G-d to give mankind intelligence - the ability to discern, to make distinctions, for if we are unable to make distinctions, how shall we navigate our complex world? Making distinctions is a holy task.

There are four phenomena we should never confuse. The first: legitimate criticism (regardless of whether it is justified: this is always a matter for debate) of Israel, its government, its policies, or its society. Against this, we have no complaint. Criticism of this kind, internal or external, is essential to the democratic process, and Israel is - to its immense credit - a democracy.

The second: illegitimate criticism, involving tendentious reporting, distorted presentation of the facts, and sometimes deliberate falsehoods. This too is a hazard of a free society. The only way to defeat it is by the truth, through counter-arguments and the integrity with which we present the facts.

There is a third, quite different and disturbing phenomenon, that goes beyond illegitimate criticism to make the claim that, alone among the nations of the world, the Jewish people is not entitled to a national home. We still regularly hear this claim all these years after the Balfour Declaration (1917) and the United Nation's 1947 resolution to end the Mandate, and it is a scar on the face of humanity that the people with a longer connection with a land than almost any other in the world today is denied the legitimacy of its right to live there.

There were Jews in Israel long before there were English in England, Frenchmen in France, or Italians in Italy. China may be an exception. Soon after Hong Kong went back to China in 1997, Elaine and I met Mr. Tung Chee Wha, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong on behalf the Government of Beijing - a delightful lovely man with a high regard for Judaism, Jews and Israel. He said "Chief Rabbi, Jews are an old people and the Chinese are an old people. We go back 5,000 years, you go back 6,000 years. I want to ask you one question: For the first 1,000 years, what did the Jewish people do without Chinese takeaways?" I replied, "Mr. Tung, for the first 1,000 years, we complained about the food!"

Anti-Zionism, the third claim, is today spreading from violent extremists to academics and others in Europe and elsewhere who should know better than to repeat what Julian Benda called le trahison des clercs - "the betrayal of the intellectuals." That those who fight for every nation's right to be should exclude Jews is frankly unacceptable. That is anti-Zionism. It is not yet anti-Semitism.

However, when synagogues are bombed and Jewish cemeteries desecrated, when Jewish schools are attacked throughout Europe and Jews attacked in the street, when an American journalist Daniel Pearl is brutally murdered in Pakistan because he is a Jew, that is anti-Semitism. And the road from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism is very short indeed.

Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitism? No. Are false accusations against Israel anti-Semitism? No. Is Britain an anti-Semitic country? No and no again. This is a good, decent and tolerant country, a society of chessed which we love and to which we have loyally contributed for 350 years.

But we say to every responsible citizen of Europe - Zakhor, remember. Remember how one thing leads to another. Remember how centuries of prejudice against Jews were captured and turned to evil by evil men for evil ends. Remember that the road to hell begins with a single step. For the love of G-d, or for the love of humanity, stand up and say "No".

You do not have to support the current or any other Government of Israel in order to protest the demonisation of Zion and the Jewish people. You do not have to take sides in the current conflict in order to be able to say to people, "You are stirring up hatred which is wrong, dangerous and unacceptable."

If history or decency mean anything to you as Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus or secular humanists, don't leave Jews to have to fight this battle alone. Because although anti-Semitism begins with Jews, it never ends with Jews. Although anti-Semitism is directed against one particular group of humanity, ultimately it is an assault on humanity itself - our right to be different, our right to be who we are without fear. Therefore, responsible politicians, religious leaders, academics and others throughout Europe should say to any and every group - political, religious or aid agency - that if anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism is part of your programme, I want nothing to do with it. That is all it takes - just say No, no more, no less, but No.

That is where we are. What, in this context, is the role of the Board?

The Board of Deputies is one of Anglo-Jewry's most ancient and distinguished institutions. It has shaped not only our community, but has also helped to shape and inspire others. The South African and Canadian Boards of Deputies are based on it. Many other organisations in other Jewish communities were influenced by its example. If the Board of Deputies did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. But we could not invent it. The Board was born in 1760, in another and more gracious age. Great institutions are easy to destroy, but almost impossible to rebuild. Therefore we must never act so as to endanger the Board's future.

What is the role of the Board? To articulate Judaism? That is a spiritual challenge. To express the view of the Jewish community? That is an impossible challenge: if there are two Jews, there are three opinions. The Israeli novelist Amos Oz, with whom I had a dialogue in Israel, began by saying: "On many things I don't agree with Rabbi Sacks. In fact on many things I don't even agree with myself."

The task of the Board can be summed up in four words: To defend Jewish interests. At all times that task is important. Today it is urgent as well. It involves the relations of our community with Government and with other ethnic and religious communities, the defence of Jewish practices like shechita and brit milah, and in general and on the broadest possible canvass, to care for, protect and defend our freedom to be Jews; our safety, security and integrity as Jews. That is a task massive and momentous, and it can only be done by the Board of Deputies.

There is no alternative. Because of the Board we can relate to government, state and society not as a single voice but through a single institution under a single umbrella, speaking as a single people. As a single people, we believe with perfect faith - and this is the religious principle on which the Board is based - that Kol Israel arevim zeh bazeh, "all Jews are responsible for one another." The Board is the embodiment of that principle in our community.

The Board is an answer, a noble and decent answer, to the single greatest problem that has beset the Jewish people from the days of Moses to today: our factionalism, our tendency at critical moments to split apart, for every Jew to say "I know best". The first recorded words spoken to Moshe Rabbenu (when he saw two Jews fighting and tried to make peace) were: "Who appointed you to be our leader?" He had not even thought of becoming a leader and already his leadership was being challenged.

That has been the bane of our history and the cause of almost every disaster that ever struck the Jewish people: our inability to act together as a community. The Board is therefore immensely consequential to the fate of the British Jewish community. We must cherish it and recognise it as one of the pillars on which Anglo-Jewry rests. Weaken it and you weaken the entire structure of the community and its capacity to defend itself. That would be unforgivable. The Board must be clearly and categorically recognised as the one institution charged with defending the interests of the Anglo-Jewish community.

Let me give you a hypothetical example. I am concerned to make it clear that this is not an actual example, and I am quite sure that it will never ever happen. However, perform a thought experiment: Imagine that an issue arises of concern to the Jewish community. The government minister responsible for this issue is sympathetic to the Jewish community. She may have many Jewish friends, she may admire Judaism. Let us hypothesize that this minister is a friend who wants to do whatever she can do to help. Representatives of the Board come to see her to present the case for the Jewish community. Now imagine that before or after that meeting, other Jewish groups or individuals approach the minister to present an alternative case.

Now place yourself in the position of the minister. She wants to do whatever she can to help the Jewish community. What, though, should she now do? She knows that if she helps this group she will upset that, and if assists that group, she will offend this. We will have presented her with an insoluble problem. We will have placed her in a situation where she cannot but offend some Jews. And this is a person, we recall, who simply wants to the Jewish community. We will have asked her to do the impossible, putting her in the most invidious situation in which a politician can be placed. What the long term result will be, I leave it to your imagination. We had a problem, we had somebody who wanted to help, and somehow we seized defeat from the teeth of victory, doing great damage not only to the cause or interest concerned, but also to our entire relationship with a friend who wanted to help us and who will now think twice before getting involved in Jewish issues.

That is what happens if the Board is not seen as the sole representative of the Anglo-Jewish community to government. Don't let it happen. There is only one alternative, whoever we are, whatever our views: When it comes to the defence of Jewish interests, we must always and only do so through the Board. Have we not learned from every syllable of Jewish history, from every sigh of Jewish suffering, that we cannot go it alone? We can only go it together. Therefore I call upon every organisation in Anglo-Jewry to work through the Board and with the Board. If you have any criticism of the Board, then do not weaken it by criticising it, strengthen it by helping it. Its strength is ours. It is impossible for the Board to be weak and for Anglo-Jewry to be strong.

Finally, and briefly, I come to the call to us as the Anglo-Jewish community, indeed to us as part of world Jewry. I summed up the work of my first 10 years in office in the phrase, Jewish Continuity. In the coming years, I want us to put at the forefront of our minds a different phrase, a different concept: Jewish Responsibility. That is the call of our time, especially to young Jews.

The historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis, who coined the phrase "the clash of civilisations", once pointed out something highly relevant to this period of the Jewish year, as we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He said that when bad things happen to any group, it can respond in two different ways. It can ask, "Who did this to me?" Or it can ask, "What can I do to put it right?" Those two approaches create different kinds of civilisation.

If your first response is to ask, "Who did this to me?" you create, or are a part of, what is called today a victim culture. You blame others for your situation. Jews never had - and I pray they never will have - a victim culture. It is easy and very tempting to portray oneself as a victim. It attracts sympathy. It provides an excuse for anger and rage. And it relieves you of all responsibility for your actions.

Neither in ancient times in the days of the prophets, nor now on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur now, has it been a Jewish response to blame others. We criticise ourselves. We say, Ashamnu, bogadnu, gozalnu. We confess. We admit our faults. We accept responsibility to G-d, to ourselves, to the Jewish people and to the world.

Bad times bring out the best in Jews, because in them a sense of responsibility is born. There are six words in the Torah which are a turning point in Jewish history: Vayigdal Moshe vayetze el echov vaya'ar besivlotam, "Moses grew up and went out to his brethren and saw their suffering." Moses at that time had been brought up as a prince of Egypt. He looked Egyptian, he dressed and spoke like an Egyptian. But when he saw Jews suffering he said, in effect: "These are my people, and they need my help." That moment was the beginning of the career of the greatest leader the Jewish people has ever known. Moses became a leader when he accepted Jewish responsibility. One line has resonated through our history: Ka'asher ye'anu oso kein yirbe vechein yifrotz, "the more they were afflicted, the more they grew and spread" (Ex. 1: 12). It is in this intuitive reaction of the part of Jews throughout the ages - that when bad things happen, we do not blame others, but instead accept responsibility - that an ability has emerged to turn crisis into renewal.

It is a fascinating linguistic fact that the Chinese ideogram for "crisis" also means "opportunity." Perhaps that is why Chinese civilization has been so long-lived. Hebrew is, however, more remarkable still, because the word for "crisis" - mashber - also means "child-birth chair." In Hebrew, a crisis is more than an opportunity. It is the sign that something new is being born. That is a measure of the Jewish capacity to hope, and never to be defeated by tragedy.

I want to say to every member of our community, especially the young - our youth groups, students and young adults: Stop asking what Jews and Judaism can give you. Ask what you can give to Judaism and the Jewish people. Asking this and acting on it yields the discovery that the more we give to Jewish life, the more we get from Jewish life.

That is the call of this hour. We are a tiny people; we have many enemies. One writer, the American Mitlon Himmelfarb, once observed that the entire world population of Jewry is smaller than the statistical error in the Chinese census. Why did the Almighty make it so? What religious meaning is it meant to convey? G-d created a people every member of which would know that he or she counts. Each of us has a contribution to make: some by acts of welfare, others by communal defence; some by teaching Torah, others by comforting the afflicted and welcoming the stranger; some by giving money, others, no less importantly, by giving time; some by fighting anti-Semitism, others by defending Israel, or simply by visiting Israel at this time of its distress.

This call to Jewish responsibility transcends all our differences within the Jewish community. In Judaism, good deeds are a universal language, because human need is a universal cry. Therefore whatever our beliefs or affiliations, religious or secular, old or young, right-wing or left, let us work together where we can; let us respect one another where we can't. Let each one of us in our own way light a candle of hope to dispel some of the darkness of this global and anxious age. We are going to say in the days ahead, Zochrenu lechaim, Remember us for life, melech chofetz ba-chaim, O King who delights in life, ve-kotveinu be-sefer ha-chaim, and write us in the book of life, lema'ancha Elokim chaim, for Your sake, O G-d of life. In an age of terror and death, let us create a counter-culture of life. And may He who makes peace in His high places help us make peace down here on earth. Amen.