This post is in the form of a letter, addressed to all the naive Rabbonim out there, especially those on the Left, who believe that Islam as an ideology isn’t a Jew-hating one and that those who voice concerns about Islamic Jew-hatred are either ‘bigots’ or ‘far right’ or plain misinformed.

Dear Rabbi

I know that you and some of your colleagues have, to use a colloquial term, ‘bet the farm’ on the idea of multiculturalism. If you are protected from its negative consequences, because of income or where you live or the social circles that you move in, then multiculturalism looks great. If you are relatively wealthy, surrounded by people who only say nice things about multiculturalism and live in a nice area, then you can have all the advantages of multiculturalism but none of the disadvantages.

You can do the multikulti thing then go home to a nice house, in a nice area and be surrounded by people who, even if they have different belief systems, probably share the same moral values as you do. You do not have to, as too many of us have to – including many less well off Jews – live with what multiculturalism has brought to US, not you. You do not have to live with and tolerate the intolerable, the social and cultural atomisation, fear of violence, poverty of spirit and sometimes the fearful loneliness of being surrounded by those who have moral values at odds with our own. You the Rabbonim of the Left who see multiculturalism as a generally good thing are not alone in that choice, other groups both religious such as the Church of England and non-religious, such as the BBC, have done the same.

Whilst like any other believing Jew I desire peace and believe that keeping the peace of the city or nation in which we find ourselves is a good thing and something to be worked for, such peace should not be ‘peace at any price’. I get the impression from some of the statements made by Rabbonim of the political Left, including some whom are quite high profile but whom I will not name here because of Loshon Hara, that peace with Islam at any price is worthwhile. My view is of the exact opposite and that peace at any price with Islam is a moral, spiritual and political abomination.

Nobody least of all Jews, wins by not acknowledging Islam’s Jew hatred or glossing over its long history of hating and killing Jews. Yes, I’m the first to admit that Christians have a long history of killing and oppressing Jews but the last century has seen a sea change in Christian thought. The excoriation of Jews and Judaism as emphasised by the ‘blood verse’ in the Christian testament and the ravings of Martin Luther, are no longer mainstream in Christianity. Mainstream Christianity has in large part dealt with theological Jew-hatred. It is no longer a live issue and although secular Jew-hatred may be an issue among some Christians, such people get almost zero backing from the mainstream churches. I’m the ‘only Jew in the village’ and am surrounded by Christians including Anglicans, Baptists, Evangelicals and a large number of Polish Roman Catholics. I do not fear death or harm from these people. They might find Judaism odd or strange, they might be confused as to why we do not believe that Yeshua Ben Joseph was ‘the son of god’ and why we still wait for our Moshiach ‘even though he tarry much’.

But, and this is the most important thing. I can wear a kippah or tzitzit without much problem in public even though I’m surrounded by 57 varieties of Christians and there are even Christians whom I can sell my Chometz to at Pesach. I cannot say the same about Islam or those areas of Britain where Islam dominates. I was born in an area that is now dominated both socially and politically by Islam. I cannot walk the length of the street, one third of a mile, where I was born wearing stuff that identifies me as a Jew without a great deal of fear. I would not make this journey as I doubt I’d get one half of the way down this road before aggressive Muslims popped out from streets and houses and I heard the whispered and not so whispered word ‘Yahud’. This word would not be said in a spirit of curiosity as in ‘oh look there’s a Jew that’s unusual’ which is the response I get where I live, but in a spirit of aggression and in a tone of hatred, the word spat out like a person would spit unwanted dirt from their mouth onto the floor.

I do not want peace at any price with an ideology that promotes Jew hatred even if the Muslim individuals that you are working with are genuinely committed to peaceful coexistence between members of different faiths. I take this view because although there are genuinely peaceful Muslim individuals who have used their intellect and their inherent goodness, to take a view of Islam that is both peaceful and inclusive, I know enough about Islamic theology to know that such individuals have no real power in Islam and no real influence on mainstream Islamic theological thought. They are an absolute minority in Islam. In some nations those from Islamic paths that embrace peace and co-existence are violently oppressed by the majority Sunni or Shia Muslim population. Peace is good, peace is admirable, every day I pray that one day the children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael will water their goats together by the Jordan River, but until that day happens or the Moshiach arrives, whatever comes first, I will be rightly suspicious of ideologies that openly say ‘I want you dead’.

I believe that it is perfectly right and proper to live in peace with individuals who are Muslims, especially those from paths that have embraced peace and co-existence. There is a massive difference after all between Ahmediyya and Ismaili Muslims, who are often educated and cosmopolitan individuals who believe in peace and those from the bulk of the Shia and Sunni communities, who take the Koran and Hadith as unchallengeable, including the bits that command the killing of Jews.

If there are things that we should have learned from Judaism’s utterly tragic 20th century then they are these: The first is that there is a danger in following false secular deities such as socialism.

For example: Those Jews who erroneously thought that Bolshevik Communism was a potential route to liberation for Jews in Russia, not only ended up woefully disappointed by how the false god of Communism turned out, but often ended up murdered by Communism and Communists. The second thing that we should have learned is that when someone says that they are going to kill you, whether they are killing in the name of a secular socialist nationalism or are motivated by a faith in a higher spiritual power, then we should believe them and take steps to protect ourselves against them.

Sadly I believe that too many Rabbonim of the Left have failed to learn either lesson. They still try to attempt the impossible task of riding two horses, that of the Torah and secular collectivism, at the same time, even though The Torah is not a left wing document and socialism would wipe out any challenger for a person’s loyalty to anything other than the State, even if the challenge came from The Eternal One.

Even more worrying is the fact that some Rabbonim of the Left, who would quite rightly denounce Jew-hatred and calls for our destruction that come from the tiny number of neo-Nazi jackboot lickers that exist, fail to denounce, or even permit their congregants to ask awkward questions about, an Islamic ideology that says in its scripture in Hadith Tabari 7:97 “Kill any Jew who falls under your power.”

Failing to see Islam the ideology as a threat, because of the rampant Jew hatred and hatred for other beliefs in Islamic theology, is the equivalent of a Rabbi in Germany in 1926 or 1927 saying ‘we don’t have to worry about what’s in this new book Mein Kampf and I’m sure those guys in brown shirts are peaceful really’. We would quite rightly look back from our historical position with contempt for such naivety and would have no problem with saying such a cleric was utterly wrong.

We cannot afford to be complacent in the face of enemies or an enemy ideology or ideologies that promote war and not peace. We need to be on our guard against them. The Rabbonim of the Left need to stop hanging around with pretend ‘moderate’ Muslims and Islamic groups who all too often turn out to be only posing as moderates, but who are in reality extremists, who have hidden and not excised their Jew-hatred. Failing to inform Jews about Islamic theology, although not those individual Muslims who are peaceful, constitutes an act that is putting Jews in danger and is in my view something that could be classified as chillul Hashem. To put Jews in danger because of loyalty to the comfortable but very debatable notions of political correctness or multiculturalism or leftism and not discuss the threat from Islam, really does denigrate the Torah, Hashem and the Jewish people.

I support the idea of bringing about peaceful co-existence and peace but this cannot be achieved by dishonesty by omission about the ideologies that challenge peace and co-existence. Neither can it be gained by passing off the threat from a violent religious ideology onto whipping boys like geopolitics, or capitalism or patriarchy or whatever is the left’s ‘two minute hate’ for this week.

A Rabbi is by the nature of the job a teacher, but the lessons taught and learned must be based in honesty and not falsehood. It’s quite possible to be egalitarian in religious practice, questioning of the meaning of the Mitzvot in the modern world and concerned about not just the Jewish community but also the wider world, without being stupid and exposing all Jews to danger from an ideology that has over the centuries at best grudgingly tolerated us to live as second or third class citizens and at worst tried to exterminate us.

I mean no personal enmity to the Rabbonim of the Left, many of those of this persuasion that I have encountered are basically decent but naive people. But, I do want the Rabbonim who self identify as being on the political Left to engage in some serious contemplation of what I have said above, about recognising a threat when it appears and the penalty for not doing so. Maybe the upcoming Days of Awe would be an appropriate opportunity to those congregational Rabbonim to consider whether peace with Islam at any price is sensible or whether it will lead to little more than a slightly more modern pogrom or even an updated cattle truck. This year’s Days of Awe I will be thinking of my mistakes in the last year and maybe the mistake as I see it of the Rabbonim of the Left in wanting peace at any price should also be considered by those who have promoted this idea?

May I take this opportunity to wish all Rabbonim, from whatever part of Judaism they are aligned to and all the Jewish readers of this blog, a sweet Jewish New Year.

l’shana tova tikateyvu

J