While filming The Real Rooneys for Disney+, Wayne Rooney learned that his nan's family were Polish Jews. When a producer pointed out that this makes him Jewish too, he suggested "Roo the Jew" as a name for a spin-off. With the debate regarding the greatest Jewish footballer of all time now settled, I wonder where his journey goes next. A Friday night dinner? Fasting on Yom Kippur? An Arsenal season ticket? Or an opinion on Israel, prefaced, no doubt, with three words guaranteed to give him one more free pass.
"As a Jew…"
There is something curious about the words “as a Jew” and those who tend to use it. The Chief Rabbi doesn't need to tell us he is speaking “as a Jew.” Nor do the leaders of communal bodies such as the Board of Deputies or the Jewish Leadership Council. Everyone knows. Their Jewishness isn't a credential they need to produce before expressing an opinion. It is woven into who they are, what they do and invariably why their views are being sought. The phrase tends to appear only when Jewishness is being used as a licence – deployed as a prelude to criticism and condemnation but rarely, if ever, to tribute.
"As a proud British Jew" set the context for Ed Miliband's recent statement to Parliament, introducing sanctions aimed at the settlements, delivered in language aimed at Israel. Now, as a Jew, I can only imagine how painful that would, or at least should, have been for him. A proud British Jew, the Foreign Secretary no less, believing he had no choice but to sanction the world's only Jewish state. I don't envy him. In his shoes, I would talk of a "heavy heart". I would explain why I thought it necessary, and why I desperately hoped it would not be necessary for long. I would extend an olive branch to my community, who I know would be hurting too, and to those in my party for whom Israel means so much.
Miliband didn't look conflicted as he addressed the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. In fact he looked positively euphoric. Receiving a hero's welcome as the keynote speaker at the Labour Friends of Palestine reception, he showed little sign of a heavy heart. He told the audience that those who had demanded a change in Britain's approach to Israel had been vindicated: "We hear you. You were right." He praised them for having "kept the flame of justice burning". Neither he nor any of his cabinet colleagues attended the Labour Friends of Israel event.
Nobody can dispute Miliband's Jewishness. His family history is extraordinary and profoundly moving. His grandmother found sanctuary in Israel after his grandfather and around 60 members of his family were murdered in the Holocaust. He is perfectly entitled to believe Israel's government is wrong, to condemn the settlements and to advocate sanctions. Being Jewish no more obliges him to support Netanyahu than being British obliges me to support Andy Burnham. But these are arguments that don’t need to be authenticated by the invocation of Jewishness.
He frames his position through Jewish identity and "Jewish values", as though his convictions emerge naturally from them. At conference it was "survivor's responsibility": the duty never to be bystanders to oppression. That is quite a journey. From a family's Holocaust experience, through moral obligation, to sanctioning the world's only Jewish state.
Of course, Jewish tradition teaches justice and obligations to the vulnerable. It also teaches of peoplehood, the redemption of captives and the imperative of Jewish survival. Sometimes these principles live in tension. It is remarkably easy to find the one that supports a conclusion you have already reached.
There is a difference between having Jews present and having British Jewish life represented. There is a difference between listening to Jewish voices and selectively promoting the ones that validate what you want to do.
In already challenging times, Miliband’s contribution has sharpened an increasingly pernicious dividing line in British public life: between the “good Jew” and the “bad Jew”. In his conference speech he lays it out without nuance. This is about, "doing what is right and galvanising others to act too.” The “good” Jews have supported his position, some publicly and with equal fervour. Where that leaves those whose Jewish values are not in step with this self-appointed spokesperson for Jewish people remains to be seen.
The authority to stand at the Despatch Box and sanction Israel was conferred on Miliband for one reason and one reason only. He was there as the Foreign Secretary and that is how he should have introduced his statement.
Not "as a Jew”.
Those three words should come with a warning. If you ever find yourself needing to open an argument about Jews, Judaism or Israel with “as a Jew”, ask yourself why. If your argument is good, make it. If your policy is right, defend it. If your interpretation of Judaism is persuasive, persuade us. But don't hold up your Jewishness as a credential intended to make the argument harder to challenge or to give you some God-given right to present it.
Being Jewish isn't a preface. It’s just who we are.
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