TIMES OF ISRAEL
by Liam Hoare
September 1, 2014
UK Jewish community pulls together to say religious discrimination is not only a Jewish problem, but a British problem
LONDON – A year after his gala installation as British chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis told a crowd of up to 4,500 that he could not have foreseen needing to rally against anti-Semitism. In response to the rise of recorded instances of anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, Sunday’s rally was held outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
“We demand zero tolerance of anti-Semitism,” Mirvis said. After the murder of the three yeshiva students in the West Bank, “little did we realize that anti-Semitism would reach high levels around the world and here in the UK as well.” Calling for an end to all forms of prejudice including Islamophobia, Mirvis noted the “deep esteem” in which the Jewish community of Britain is held. Organized by the newly-formed Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAAS), the event hosted speakers including Mirvis, Maajid Nawaz, co-founder and chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, and Douglas Murray, associate director of the Henry Jackson Society. CAAS, Hebrew for “anger,” emerged as a response to the decision by the Tricycle Theatre to turn away the UK Jewish Film Festival on the basis that it received funding from the Israeli embassy……
……The intent of the rally was “to demand zero tolerance of anti-Semitism under British law,” Jonathan Sacerdoti, spokesperson for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, told The Times of Israel. “Every example of anti-Semitism that we are seeing on our streets, online, against Jewish property must be prosecuted under British law……As a minority group in the United Kingdom we deserve protection under the law. As proud British citizens, we recognize this not only as a Jewish problem but a British problem when a minority group isn’t being protected under the law to the extent they feel safe within their own country,” said Sacerdoti……
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