Senior Rabbi Julia Neuberger Talks Antisemitism in the UK

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And, Rabbi Neuberger, this is an unprecedented intervention by the chief rabbi. Just going to put up a quick graphic of some of what he said, talking about a new poison sanctioned from the top taking root in the Labor Party, saying, “OK, I shouldn’t tell anybody how to vote, but when December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt the very soul of our nation is at stake.” Rabbi, do you agree with this intervention?

JULIA NEUBERGER, BRITISH HOUSE OF LORDS MEMBER: I do. I’m — and I think I ought to explain for an international audience that I’m a reformed rabbi, sort of somewhat to the liberal end of the spectrum. And the chief rabbi in the U.K. is of the Orthodox. And it’s quite unusual for us to be absolutely in accord in this kind of way. So we have been talking all the way through. I totally support what Chief Rabbi Mirvis has done and said. And, actually, I’m just delighted that he did, because somebody needed to stand up and say there really is a poison at the top of the Labor Party.

AMANPOUR: What about Archbishop Justin Welby? To your point, he has said — and he’s the head of the Church of England, the Anglicans — “That the chief rabbi should be compelled to make such an unprecedented statement at this time ought to alert us to the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.” So that’s the head of the Anglican community joining your ranks.

NEUBERGER: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: What exactly is it, Baroness, Rabbi Neuberger? Can you explain to an American audience, which is also very sensitized to this, as well as the British and the international audience, what exactly is it? Because Jeremy Corbyn absolutely denies that he’s anti-Semitic.

NEUBERGER: He flatly denies it. He always says, I’m opposed to anti- Semitism and other forms of racism, slightly suggesting that he doesn’t really think that anti-Semitism is a form of racism. So I think it’s quite important to lay that on the table. Then, to go forward, what has happened since he has been leader of the Labor Party in 2016 — and I ought to explain that I grew up in the Labor Party, was an active Labor student. What has happened since he has been leader is that a sort of drip, drip of anti-Semitic abuse has happened, particularly on social media, but not only. He also has been found to not be at all sensitive to anti-Semitic tropes, to anti-Semitic murals. There was a particular celebrated mural which was done by an American artists, Mear One, on a wall in East London. It could have come out of “Der Stuermer.” It could have come out of a Hitler journal. It showed hooked-nose Jews bent over a Monopoly board. And the Monopoly board was, if you like, balanced on the backs of the cowering poor. And these were the international Jewish financiers exploiting the poor. It could have come from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was truly shameful.