Let Jews deﬁne what it means to be Jewish - The Jewish Chronicle

There is one fundamental issue the Chakrabarti Inquiry needs to understand. It has nothing to do with antisemitism or the Holocaust, or for that matter, Ken Livingstone, Naz Shah or Jeremy Corbyn. It can be summed up in two words: Jewish peoplehood.

When most people in the UK discuss Israel, it is seen as a foreign policy issue. It's all about the politics of what is going on over there, 2,000-plus miles away, in the Middle East.

But that's not how most British Jews see it. Foreign policy is part of it, of course, but Israel is not simply some political issue that belongs in the foreign news section of the national media. It is much closer to home. Indeed, it is inside most Jews' homes; in their hearts and minds.

The 2010 JPR survey of British Jewish attitudes towards Israel found that 82 per cent of British Jews say that Israel plays either a central or important part in their Jewish identity. 95 per cent of British Jewish adults have visited the country at least once, and 90 per cent regard it as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. 72 per cent have family or friends living there, which makes every news item about the country feel very close.

In short, Israel is a deeply personal issue for most British Jews. Most do not classify simple criticism of the Israeli government as antisemitic, but when the country is attacked or maligned in ways that go beyond normative political debate - such as drawing parallels between Nazis and Israelis, or calling for boycotts of Israeli products - most British Jews feel as if a fundamental part of themselves is being threatened. And irrespective of how others choose to define that, a clear majority of Jews describe that feeling as antisemitism. That's not my opinion; that is empirical fact based on 2012 EU data from the largest survey of European Jews ever conducted.

There are numerous political reasons why they might feel this. But to find the underlying factor, one has to understand something about contemporary Jewish identity.

In the 2013 National Jewish Community Survey, JPR asked British Jews which aspects of Jewishness were most important to them. In one of the strongest responses, 89 per cent highlighted "feeling part of the Jewish people," a much higher proportion than those who identified God, prayer or indeed anything in the realm of religious observance.

The reason for that is because the Jews are a people over and above a religious group. Religiosity is critical to Judaism of course, but the truth is you don't actually have to believe anything to be Jewish. According to Jewish law, you simply need to be born to a Jewish mother, or convert. What you believe, or practise, whilst vital to the maintenance of that identity, is immaterial to your fundamental status as a Jew.

The way this notion of peoplehood is most commonly expressed today is in the Zionist idea, the belief that Jews, like other peoples, should have an independent state in their ancestral homeland. Those who deny, minimise or threaten that, need to appreciate that they are not simply passing judgment on a matter of foreign policy. They are striking at the very heart of what, for most British Jews, contemporary Jewishness has become.

Jewish peoplehood doesn't manifest itself simply as a sense of connection with Israelis. The establishment of the State of Israel had a profound bearing on this ethnic component of Jewishness. After the horrors of the Shoah, it helped restore the Jewish people's sense of a shared past, and create the possibility of a shared future. Perhaps most importantly, it helped rebuild the Jewish people's faith in one another.

That feeling does not necessarily translate itself into Jews wanting to live in Israel. While about 35,000 have made aliyah since 1948, most British Jews feel very connected to Britain. The 2012 EU data show this clearly: 84 per cent feel fully part of British society. Indeed, the vast majority of British Jews feel strongly British and Jewish – that these two parts of themselves rarely come into conflict in Britain has long been one of the great blessings of living here.

But that is being challenged by recent events on the political left. For the first time in decades, Jews are being asked to choose between two parts of their identities. Being Jewish is fine; being a Zionist is not. Yet, statistically, for most British Jews, being a Jew and a Zionist are one and the same. They cannot be separated out. Demands to do so tear their Jewishness in two.

This demand for ideological clarity leaves no space for British Jews to be what most believe they are: solidly part of British society whilst also being part of the Jewish people. That's what British Jews expect from today's Labour Party - simply to be allowed to be Jewish as they define it. Unless the Chakrabarti Inquiry understands that, the accusations of antisemitism will persist.