In his sermon on Shabbat, Rabbi Naftali Brawer claimed that an alien parachuted into the Anglo-Jewish community for a weekend - who would read the JC on Friday night, go to shul, and listen to conversations - would conclude that "Judaism is about three things - Maccabi football, fishballs and anti-semitism."
The claim was made to illustrate the wider point that Anglo-Jewry "lacks a spiritual vocabulary, our judaism is defined by limiting notions, and We lack a positive sense of spiritual mission."
Sitting in shul listening to this, I was somewhat shocked and taken aback (as were several people around me, who expressed similar sentiments to my own).
Firstly, no Shabbat experience is ever the same from one household to the next. If, as Rabbi Brawer aserts, the alien had been fortunate enough to end up in a household where going to shul on Shabbat morning was part of the weekend, no doubt the alien would have come across a few other key elements of Anglo-Jewry - the education of our children; the traditions we hold dearly through prayer, song and food; and our contribution to wider society, amongst other things. Why, therefore, would football, fishballs and anti-semitism be the redeeming features of a Shabbat in the UK? One shouldn't let parts of the Jewish Chronicle cloud their judgement of the actual goings on of the Jewish community.
Such a conclusion does a huge disservice to many, and is not a message to inspire people to attain a "positive sense of spiritual mission". Instead, perhaps a focus on the positive points of Anglo-Jewry would provide the stimulus for people to move away from the apparent continuous in-fighting, and concentrate on what is good and how further progress can be made.
It is here, I believe, that spiritual leaders, such as our communal rabbis, should be playing a key part, motivating their congregants through messages of hope and achievement, rather than criticism and failure.