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Jennifer Lipman

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Jennifer Lipman,

Jennifer Lipman

Opinion

Here’s my communal To Do list for the 2020s

'A new decade offers a reset; time to make resolutions for the future. As a community, it’s an opportunity to reflect on what we want from the coming decade.'

January 2, 2020 11:14
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If the past is a foreign country, 2010 feels like another planet. Other than Benjamin Netanyahu being at the top of Israeli politics, much has changed since then, including for British Jews and the wider Jewish world. Back then, there was no JSwipe or JW3, Jeremy Corbyn was safely confined to the backbenches and, while cranks were holding the Jews responsible for global financial woes, there weren’t quite so many doing so online.

A new decade offers a reset; time to make resolutions for the future. As a community, it’s an opportunity to reflect on what we want from the coming decade.

Top of my list is showing to other beleaguered groups the compassion so many have shown to us. Solidarity is not a one-way street and there are some within our community who can fail to recognise prejudice towards others but are the first to spot it directed at us. Frankly, that’s not good enough.

One of the best things about the last few months was seeing people emphatically disavow Corbyn’s Labour because they felt a slur on the Jews was a slur on us all. As needed, we must repay that, rather than use the whatabouttery employed by the most zealous Corbynistas.