All columnists like to think their work is unique, but – ahem – let’s just say there are few original ideas around.
This column, however, I can state with stone-cold certainty is indeed unique. Because never before – and I am pretty sure it’ll never happen again – has an idea of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam in the US who likes to speak of the “Satanic Jew”, been praised in the JC and recommended as an ideal to British Jews.
But I want to suggest that – in one, strictly limited sense - we can learn from him.
In 1995 Farrakhan organised the Million Man March in Washington, DC. It’s pretty clear that the actual number on the march wasn’t close to a million – the consensus is around 400,000. But it was, everyone agrees, huge.
The specifics of the Million Man March’s aims need not concern us – the lesson I am concerned with is the size of the march.
On Sunday at 1pm the Standing Strong rally will convene, a response to the terrible rise in antisemitic attacks in recent weeks and months. I am sure there will be a large turnout; I’ll see you there. There was a large turnout in November 2023 when some 70,000 people marched against antisemitism. Or at least we comforted ourselves at the time by thinking that it was a large turnout. But it was, of course, mainly Jews on the march. And I am worried that this weekend’s rally will be the same.
One of the main themes in our community following the rise in antisemitism has been how lonely it feels being Jewish at the moment. Where is the support from our fellow Brits? Yes, there have been the usual warm words from politicians (don’t get me started on the “no place for antisemitism in Britain” formulation). But as Lord Finkelstein asked a few days ago, “Why aren’t the left marching for Jewish Lives Matter?” As Baroness Berger asked, “Where are the bands? And the brands? And the otherwise ‘proud’ anti-racists. I. Can’t. Hear. You.”
Nothing could express that support more clearly than a genuinely huge rally – having central London flooded with people saying they stand with us and abhor antisemitism. Imagine how it would feel to see such support. It would be quite something.
Which brings us to Louis Farrakhan and the Million Man March. The entire purpose of that march was that it was for African Americans alone. My point here is that we need a show of support from our non-Jewish fellow countrymen and women. What matters now is who shows up – and how many.
This is the moment for the silent majority to find its voice, for our fellow Brits to show the Jewish community – and the world – that they are appalled by the hatred, intimidation and violence a well-organised minority is trying to normalise on our streets.
Because this is not just a Jewish problem. A country in which Jews are stabbed, abused and terrorised in broad daylight is a country in moral trouble. If decent people believe Britain is better than this, now is the time to prove it – publicly and in numbers too large to ignore. Demonstrating is not everyone’s instinct but there are moments when staying home says something too and this is one of those moments.
This Sunday, make it a Million Mensch March, Britain!
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