2 min read
"Is there a Jewish view of Brexit," asked a friend. Well, no, I replied. There isn't even a single Jewish view of Judaism. My father used to say the best sort of synagogue committee had two members, with one person unavoidably absent.
So we Jews are all over the place, just like anyone else, or maybe, as it's us, more so. While I am for remaining in the EU, some of the Jews I most like and respect are not. Their reasons range from the economic (they feel, for instance, that the economy would be less regulated outside the EU) to the political (they are concerned about democratic control).
My own thinking mostly has nothing to do with my background. But there is one element of my view that is related to being Jewish. I hope - even if you ultimately, and for perfectly good reasons, come down on the other side - you won't regard it as an intrusion if I share it.
For centuries, the nations of Europe have been at war, and this, as my mother might put it, has not been good for the Jews. It isn't much good for anyone, come to think of it, but I think for we Jews particularly not.
A cosmopolitan atmosphere of peace and commerce is one in which a studious and entrepreneurial people can thrive. In a constant turmoil of war and nationalism? Less so.
My family has been driven across Europe by discord and violence. We lost our homes and our property and many relatives. The experiences of my mother in Belsen and my father in Siberia were different, of course, but had much in common.
The result is a keen awareness that we don't just live in a single country, but on a continent prone to violence and war, and that it is hard to stay aloof from that. If the harmony of Europe breaks down then we all suffer. So my question, when considering whether Britain should leave the EU, is not just what will the impact be on Britain, but what will the impact be on Europe?
I think our departure would have serious consequences. We would leave a Europe more inclined to protectionism and higher spending, less able to resolve its differences and far, far more likely to break apart.
Yet I think enfolding the countries of Eastern and Central Europe into a Western liberal democratic consensus has been one of the greatest diplomatic and political achievements of the modern era. And I reach that conclusion partly as a result of being Jewish and reviewing the experience of Jews in the last century.
Would we prefer the rising nationalism in Hungary and Poland, for instance, to be tempered by the community of European nations or would we prefer them to be dealing with the refugee crisis unshackled?
Perhaps, for most British people, that is an academic question since these are faraway places of which they know little. To Jews, they are not far away and we often know much.
It is possible to reason from this, as my friend Michael Gove does, that we ought to leave the EU as it is EU policy that is creating ultra nationalism by its infringements upon sovereignty.
I understand this view but cannot share it. It seems to me that global forces, including migration, will naturally put huge pressure on European nations, and the EU is one way - imperfect though it is - of dealing with these forces peaceably.
We cannot take the peace and stability and unity of European liberal democracy for granted. The EU was established in part by countries trying to embed Germany in a community of neighbouring states and has added to that the assembling of a liberal Europe after communism.
This seems to me, as a Jew, like something worth having.
But you know what they say: two Jews out for the evening, three opinions and four cars.
Daniel Finkelstein is Associate Editor of The Times