Page 8 - TORCH Magazine #17 - Autumn 2020

The connection between
anti-Semitis“
m and anti-Zionism
Rabbi Sacks Anti-Semitism is hatred said the following of Jews as a people, a race, to explain the an ethnic group. Anti- links between Zionism is a rejection of a anti-Semitism and country, a nation, a state.
Today, when their primary collective embodiment is as the people of Israel in the state of Israel, they are hated for their state.
anti-Zionism.
What is the connection between them?
What all three have in common is that they are different ways of saying that Jews have no right to exist collectively as Jews with
Anti-Semitism is a virus that mutates so the new
anti-Semites can deny they are anti-Semites at
the same rights as other human beings. Anti-Zionism is the latest mutation of the world’s oldest hate.
all. Over the centuries, anti-Semitism has
focused on the primary form of collective Jewish existence.
There are 56 Islamic nations and 159 in which Christians form the majority. There is and only ever has been one Jewish state. Tiny and vulnerable, though it is and always was.
In the Middle Ages, Jews were a religious community, so they
were hated for their religion. In the 19th
Century, when many European
That’s why anti-Zionism, denying Jews the right to their one and only collective home and misrepresenting Judaism, is the new anti-
Jews became secular, they
formed an ethnic group, a
, every bit as
race, and were hated as such.
Semitism”
virulent and dangerous as the old.
Closing thoughts
During his lifetime, Rabbi Sacks
said, “When I die, I don’t want to be remembered as the man who wrote lots of books. I don’t want to be remembered as the man who was chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth. I want to be remembered as the man who gave out sweets to children in shul (synagogue).”
your broadcasts and writings, you made even the most challenging of subjects palatable, even sweet.”
Dayan Ivan Binstock, a friend of Rabbi Sacks, said in his eulogy to the late rabbi, “Jonathan, in a sense we are all your children to whom you gave sweets. You made Torah sweet for us, whether we were your listeners in shul or followers of
We hope you have enjoyed reading some of the ‘sweets’ that Rabbi Sacks shared with us during his lifetime. We know that through his writings and the power of the internet, his work will continue to live on past his death. We pray that these words of wisdom will continue to inspire and challenge future generations and change the world for the better.
May his memory forever be a blessing.
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