Pandora’s box has been opened and the future of Britain and Europe is jeopardised

As a trained historian, I always have been quite reluctant about referenda. In most cases, they kindle a vote of protest, missing the real goal of the question. So, I have to say, I was worried as I listened to campaigners focusing on money and not on values, or on immigrants supposedly coming to the United Kingdom to drain off its limited resources. “Brussels” became a bad word.

Some people seemed to have forgotten that the European Commission is actually composed of commissioners named by EU governments, and they have no choice other than implementing politics decided by their own bosses. Of course, no European government can impose its own views, and all decisions are taken after compromises. Voters have been slightly misled, and it is only after the vote that a lot of them googled any topics about Europe. A bit late, isn’t it?

Most importantly, history was absent from the debate. I was born in a region – Alsace - that has been torn between two enemy nations for so long, that we welcomed the building of Europe with gratitude and faith in our common future.

I am in a delicate position. As a French national living in the United Kingdom by means of European law, I cannot, and do not want to comment on the British people’s choices. I am but a guest in this country.

However, I cannot help but think: what on earth have you done? I know, it is only 36 per cent of the British electorate, and most likely less in the Jewish community and certainly in London. But nobody knows what is going to happen now. Pandora’s box has been opened and the future of Britain and Europe is jeopardised. Did we really need this?

At a modest level, I am a public figure, being one of the Rabbis of Liberal Judaism’s flagship community. I know that most of my congregants share the same distraught as me. We are an international community, with European citizens and members from beyond, a real London community. But when I walk in the streets, I cannot help but think that maybe three or four of the people I see want me out.

And I feel a lot for my British friends. The country is divided, fractured, and it will take time to repair it. Of course, the United Kingdom will not plunge into totalitarianism when (or if?) it leaves the European Union - Britain is one the oldest democracies in the world. However, I am sad to see that this is the end of a wonderful idea, a united European continent that somehow managed to create a structure enabling peace and progress for all its inhabitants.

I am writing these words three days after the result, and I am still a bit emotional. Now, we have to see what is going to happen. Maybe we needed an earthquake like this to rethink our priorities, to focus on the essential? But our immediate goal is to make sure that the divides do not grow. I have full confidence in the British people that this will not happen. British values are strong enough to overcome this new challenge.

Rabbi Rene Pfertzel, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St Johns Wood