One of the main arguments of the Chief Rabbi’s new book , Future Tense, is that we need not be a “people that dwells alone” and that Jews have friends in the fight against antisemitism and other issues.

Here’s an example – from Lord Alton, writing this week in the Catholic newspaper, The Universe.

“For those of us who call ourselves European, the Holocaust means that antisemitism holds a unique and special horror, a horror that had its origins in 2,000 years of hatred directed at Jewish people. Blood libel and caricature has mutated into new forms of hatred, sometimes masquerading on the internet under the guise of free speech, sometimes originating as part of new virulent ideologies from heads of state.”

Reviewing some of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust-denying and Israel-hating remarks, he goes on:

“Jewish people often try to put a brave face on all of this and make light of such systematic hatred – like the rabbi who quipped that a telegram was sent by a relative to his family; ‘Start worrying, details to follow’. Well, we know precisely what details have invariably followed.

“We also know that antisemitism never stops with the Jews – its tentacles extend and embrace every other form of intolerance too. In this dangerous world it is more vital than ever that we understand one another’s stories and stand alongside each other.”