Opinion
Let’s ensure that the House of Israel is never divided
The JC Leader, 27 January 2022
January 27, 2022 17:42
1 min read
The JC Leader, 27 January 2022
January 27, 2022 17:42A house divided against itself cannot stand. With this famous phrase, in his landmark speech of 1858, Abraham Lincoln secured his destiny as America’s greatest president.
This week, as we bowed our heads for Holocaust Memorial Day, those words had a special resonance. In recent months, many have become deeply concerned as factional rivalry flared in the leadership of Anglo-Jewry.
This Punch and Judy drama may be engaging; and certainly, valid mistakes have been brought to light in the process. But political warfare risks losing a sense of communal dignity, not to mention the spirit of Jewish unity. This is a grave matter.
Make no mistake: although there has never in history been such a welcoming society as ours, Jews in Britain still have dangerous enemies. The Texas attack showed that. And those who wish us harm are watching our community and hoping it tears itself apart.
We cannot allow the narcissism of small differences to distract us from the achdut, or unity, that makes our people strong. Seventy-four years have passed since the Altalena cargo ship — carrying arms and fighters to assist in the struggle for the State of Israel — was sunk by fellow Jews off the coast of Netanya, a result of internecine rivalry that claimed 19 lives.
Thankfully, those days are long behind us. And nobody is drawing an equivalence between those desperate and tragic events and the present day. Nonetheless, the episode has long served as an extreme warning of the dangers of allowing our Jewish warmth and tolerance to be eclipsed by factionalism.
In this week of Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the times our community pulled together amid great peril. Moments like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which saw Jewish fighters from youth groups across the political spectrum fighting side-by-side in an act of astonishing bravery.
Now more than ever, let’s remember what binds us together. And let’s ensure that the House of Israel is never divided but always stands strong.