An expression of “deep concern,” however sincere, will not stop the next attack. The manifesto we launch in Brussels today opens with the warning attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Exact words or not, Burke understood something true: violence tolerated in one place does not stay there. It spreads.
Today the warnings are written in blood and fire. Jewish community ambulances burned outside a London synagogue. Explosives used against a synagogue in Liège. Jews murdered at prayer in Manchester. Courts and security services have exposed transnational networks funding and directing these attacks. This is not a string of isolated incidents. It is an infrastructure of hatred, built on extremist organisations, foreign funding, radical institutions and the digital world.
Europe’s answer cannot be another statement of grave concern. Nor can it be higher fences. Almost every Jewish school and synagogue in Europe now sits behind guards, steel barriers, concrete blocks. Jewish children are growing up believing this is normal. It is not. For a Jewish parent, every siren near a Jewish school carries one fear: that it signals the murder of a child.
Security is necessary. It is not sufficient. We must confront the hatred that makes the security necessary in the first place. Our manifesto sets out seven practical demands: properly trained and certified religious leaders; extremist funding exposed and cut off; real oversight of religious institutions; trained safeguarding officers to identify and report extremism; the digital space defended against incitement; zero tolerance for glorifying terrorism on Europe’s streets; and a European register of religious institutions that accept these responsibilities.
Some of this will cause discomfort. Good. Leadership sometimes must. I have never believed a Jewish leader’s job is to describe the danger more eloquently. When a German court put Brit Milah in jeopardy in 2012, we didn’t issue a statement, we went to Chancellor Merkel’s government and demanded clarity in law. We engaged politicians, doctors, religious leaders. We told Germany’s Jews to keep performing this eternally binding practice. The law changed. We did the same in Scandinavia.
When Shechita needed explicit legal protection in Romania, we didn’t lobby from the sidelines. We stood in Bucharest as the legislation was signed, then called on other governments to follow.
When Brit Milah comes under pressure today, in Belgium and elsewhere, we do not protest and move on. We engage with the substance. We put the religious, medical and legal facts in front of policymakers. Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, President of the Union of Mohalim in Europe, has written a superb, no-nonsense guide dispelling the myths around the practice and showing exactly how medicine and child welfare are embedded in Jewish law. We will put that book in the hands of every relevant policymaker in Europe.
Our last manifesto against religious extremism, published over a decade ago, was not written to be admired and filed away. Hungary and Austria adopted it in full. Several other countries adopted parts of it. This manifesto has the same purpose: not a declaration, but a framework EU member states can actually implement.
Jewish leadership has spent too long condemning, regretting, warning. All three are sometimes necessary. None is enough. Leadership means entering the room, challenging the accepted position, insisting on change – even when it upsets people. This is not only a Jewish appeal. It is a test of Europe’s moral seriousness and political courage. A Europe that cannot protect its Jews from violence, and from the causes of that violence, cannot protect its own values.
As the Jewish New Year approaches, Judaism teaches that renewal is always possible. Through our choices, we help write the next chapter – toward goodness, justice and courage, or toward hatred and evil. During the High Holy Days we ask to be inscribed in the Book of Life. Europe must now decide what it writes in the year ahead. The time for statements is over. We ask Europe to adopt our manifesto.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is president of the Conference of European Rabbis
To get more from opinion, click here to sign up for our free Editor's Picks newsletter.