Leaders
We said in our leader the overwhelming majority of Britons abhor racism. That belief is even firmer now
The JC Leader - November 15, 2019
November 14, 2019 13:36
1 min read
The JC Leader - November 15, 2019
November 14, 2019 13:36Our front page last week was born out of sadness, frustration, and anger.
As the General Election campaign began, all the usual issues were, quite rightly, being discussed.
But one issue was almost entirely absent — the belief of the majority of the Jewish community that the Leader of the Labour Party has presided over the transformation of a once great political movement into a haven for antisemites.
Our purpose in using the front page to send a message to non-Jews was simple: to get the issue talked about. Whether or not it has had any impact on people’s voting intentions we will discover at 10pm on December 12.
But it certainly generated significant coverage, which we hope means that the message was indeed conveyed to the intended audience.
In the wake of that front-page message, the JC has been inundated with letters and good wishes to be passed to the Jewish community (which we herewith gladly do), far too many for us to publish.
Suffice to say that many usual Labour voters have written to us to say that they will have nothing to do with the party until Mr Corbyn is gone and it grapples with its institutional racism. We ended the leader last week with our belief that the overwhelming majority of British people abhor racism.
That belief is even firmer now. Although we have had a number of letters from those — including some Jews — who disagree fundamentally with the idea that Labour has any problem with antisemitism, these are not only in our view mistaken, they are also a tiny minority.
Every election matters but this is an election of huge importance. It is our hope that the issue of the Leader of the Opposition’s behaviour towards Jews and his embrace of antisemites is regarded as central.