1 min read
The reopening of schools is a huge moment in this bizarre year. Quite apart from the educational impact of the coronavirus, the lack of something as basic and essential as regular contact with other children has been awful. So it is vital and right that schools reopen.
But schools are just one element of our communal architecture. The gradual easing of lockdown has been a relief but we are still very far from anything resembling normal. Synagogues have been partially open for a while, albeit in very limited ways.
Many — most — other communal activities, however, remain digital rather than “real”. The damage is not just to communal life at the moment but in the future.
JW3 has lost £1.5 million as a result of the lockdown. Before it can even think about returning to the scale of its pre-pandemic programme it needs somehow to recoup those losses — a story repeated across the community. We face a long and gruelling battle to mitigate the damage of Covid-19.
By the time this is published, Layla Moran may be leader of the LibDems. Whatever happens in the leadership contest, she has shown again how easy it is to be a passionate advocate of the Palestinan cause and not be an antisemite.
As the first MP of Palestinian descent, Ms Moran speaks with authority on these issues. She fully accepts Israel’s “right to exist, with the same rights of self-determination as any other nation” and she condems the “authoritarian, antisemitic and homophobic” Hamas. Such views ought not need to be noted but Palestinian advocacy has all too often fallen into antisemitism. It should and need not.
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