Well, first of all ladies and gentlemen,
let me say a big thank you.  A big thank
you to all of you, a big thank you to Shai, 
to everybody who has organized this
evening and let me first of all say I
don't think I agree entirely with any of
you.  But that's not really surprising so
I think I feel somewhere quite different
and let me say where I think I do stand
and maybe that helps. I'm probably
nearest, probably nearest agreeing with
Moshe. I think. I think we need a longer
conversation. But, none of you have
mentioned what has been most significant
about the rise of antisemitism on the
Left, which is its Stalinist roots. And
none of you have drawn a line, which I
think is a very important one, which goes
from what I would describe as the the
line from the "Protocols of the Elders of
Zion" to the Doctor's Plot of the late
40's and early 50's in Russia, and then
into some of the language that is
certainly being used in my country in
Britain at the moment by people who are
active supporters of the present leader
of the Labour Party, possibly by Friday
our prime minister, but I very much hope
not,
and that it's done in his name, I cannot
tell, I do not know whether it is him, but
it is done in his name. And it is done in
his name not only in the UK but in hard
left circles around Europe and indeed in
the United States. And none of you have
talked about that. And the reason I think
that that's important is I don't think
it's about Israel and Palestine.  I know
I'm in Israel right now,  and I know you'd
probably like it to be. But I don't think
it is.  I think bits of it are, and I think
Israel and Palestine is often used as
almost like a code word
for something that's really going on. But
let me just - because it's so convenient - 
yesterday, Sunday Times, London Sunday
Times, is a leak from the Labor Party's
investigation into cases of
antisemitism. Cases that they said that
they had dealt with, but which in fact
they haven't dealt with. I'm going to
quote some things which came from this
leaked report. David Cooper. Who knows
David Cooper? I'm glad I don't. "The Jew is
worse, worse than Black Death.
We need to eliminate this infection."
David Barron: "In terms of stopping being
taken over, you're too late.
We're run at the highest level by Jews."
David Ray - this is a Zionist one - "Zionists
are basically psychopaths and should be
treated as such." And there are many more.
There's pages of it. I'm not going to
read it all, but you can see there's a
double spread. And the worst, Catherine Love-Madden: "Jews are rich, interested in
finance, and want to control or exploit
others." This isn't actually about Israel-
Palestine. People use the language of
Israel-Palestine. They talk about being
'I'm an anti Zionist not an antisemite.'
But I don't think this is about Israel
and Palestine. I think this is a much
earlier picture of what and who Jews are.
And I think it's that and we have a very
strong Stalinist part of takeover of the
Labor Party -  I grew up in the Labor Party,
I come from the center-left.
It's a Stalinist take takeover of the
Labor Party which in Britain we saw some
30 years ago, we saw the fringes of it
with something called Militant it was
seen off, and now it's called Momentum,
whose main spokesman I have to say is a
Jew, that always makes me feel better,
John Landsman. And I don't think it's
really about Israel and Palestine. That's
not to say
that there isn't a lot of antisemitism
that is conflated with Israel and
Palestine. There absolutely is.
But the nub of what we're seeing and the
nature of the language that is being
used on social media towards Jews,
particularly within the Labor Party, and
the Labor Members of Parliament, the
women particularly -  it's easier to troll
women. Who have been absolute, I mean it's
disgusting what they've had, including as
some of you will know we had a woman
Labour MP, Jo Cox, not Jewish who was
murdered a couple of years ago, and two
of those women Jewish Labour MPs have
had it said to them it should have been
you rather than Jo Cox, who was killed.
And when a not-known-as-Jewish
television presenter, Rachel Riley, who
presents a maths programme, came out as
Jewish last year, what she received on
social media was even more disgusting.
It's more linked to Holocaust denial,
much of this, than it is to Israel-
Palestine. And it's more linked to
Holocaust denial, and that's why you get
the two combined in many of these tweets
that I've had the undoubted - really
horror - of having to read through. It's
more linked because if you can say that
the Holocaust is a hoax, if it didn't
really exist, you don't have to
sympathise with the Jews, and therefore
it's more legitimate to call out their
real nature: "the grasping people who are
interested in finance and only want to
control or exploit others," I quote. So
when we're talking about antisemitism,
it's really important that we look at
where some of it's coming from. I think
the UK is different from what's going on
in Germany although, I think what's going
on in Germany is very disturbing and I'm
a very recent German citizen, as well as
British citizen, about to get my German
passport. And you may ask why if that's
the case, but the reason is Brexit. And
also, they took it away from my mother,
and I'm bloody well having it back, thank
you! So there's a kind of a bit, of a bit
of that there. But it's different from
Germany.
It's different from France, so there are
real parallels. But what we're seeing in
Britain, and what we are also seeing in
some other countries, a little bit in the
Netherlands, a little bit in Australia, is
something about a Stalinist view of the
world that is reflecting back to a bit
of history, particularly the Doctor's
Plot which was so disgraceful
immediately in the wake of the Holocaust.
So what I want to say to all of you is
this: I'm not an expert, I'm not a
historian, I'm just an ordinary jobbing
rabbi in London. I wrote the book because
people kept on coming up to me and
saying 'is there really antisemitism in
the Labour Party?' And eventually after
the 30th time or so, saying yet you know,
actually there is, I thought, well they're
all these people who don't understand
about it, and I think I'm going to try
and write it in fairly simple terms as a
light read. I hope you thought it was a
light read, as a light read, because I
want to try and explain it. And in order
to explain it you do need to explain the
history.  Now I haven't got it all right,
and I certainly haven't got all the
sociology right. And I'm with you that
the IHRA definition is not
the best definition in the world, and
it's too loose. It is indeed too loose so
it doesn't help you in many cases. But it
is I suppose the best we've got at the
moment.  But, what we have and there we do
all agree,  is antisemitism being
weaponized in different kinds of ways.
Until 2016, when people in my
congregation said 'you know, there's an
awful lot of antisemitism about,' I said
"Oh come on, it's nothing, and such as
there is, is on the right it's not on
the left." And if you want to know what to
be really frightened about in the UK, it's
antisemitism still on the right, and not
on the left,  because that's where
violence comes from.  But,  that has changed
and it's changed very dramatically. And
what we have is antisemitic ideas more
commonly floating around within the
population -  it is impossible to measure,
it's undoubtedly impossible to measure.
But those who've had the best go, and
that's particularly Daniel Staetsky at
the Institute of Jewish Policy Research,
have come to the conclusion that if you
were looking at regular measures through
quite detailed polling, you'd probably
say that real antisemitic ideas are
probably no more prevalent than in
between 2 and 5 percent of the UK
population - really quite small and most
of that will probably actually be on the
far right, not the far left. But, and this
is what's significant, some antisemitic
ideas can be found in something going up
to 30% of the population. And that is
because of social media and the
echo chamber particularly of Twitter and
the fact that we no longer regard
fact-checking
and absolutely what is the truth as
really important.  So the echo chamber
where somebody says something and
there's somebody else reads it and
somebody else says something and then
they repeat it, makes it more common to
find one or two of these antisemitic
ideas in the population. And that is
worrying.  Now as a Jewish population,  I
would rather we weren't dealing with
antisemitism. In my congregation, which
incidentally is growing rather rapidly
at the moment, which may be a response to
perceived or real antisemitism,  my
father, their uncle, always used to say a
little antisemitism is good for the
Jews. He was an early Zionist here.  But I
would far rather live in a society where
antisemitism wasn't an issue. Where I
didn't feel that it was unwise for Jews
to vote Labour
in an election. I feel appalled at the
thought of saying to people there is any
way that you shouldn't
vote, other than perhaps the British
National Party. I would rather live in a
society where my congregation wasn't
growing, but people were living peaceful,
easy lives in a truly tolerant and
accepting society which, in my experience,
I'm nearly 70, and until four years ago I
think that's what Britain was. So what I
would say to all of you is, I completely
accept that there are lots of different
definitions, but what we're seeing in my
country and in some other countries - and
Trump may be partly responsible, I don't
disagree, and Bibi Netanyahu whose
policies are almost certainly partly
responsible, I don't disagree either. But
what we're seeing is not really only
about that. It's about something quite,
quite else, and it's something much more
primitive, and it's an image of the
almost like the "ewige Jude" of the
"ewige Jude" is the "eternal Jew" the one who's
always out to either wandering or
getting your money or preferably both. 
And I think that that is seriously
disturbing. Now I do believe it will end,
and I do believe that Britain will once
again become the tolerant country that I
love. But this has been scary and this is
Stalinist and don't make any mistake - 
it isn't about Israel and Palestine.
So I thank,  I thank Van Leer, I thank  the
speakers, I thank you very, very much
Julia for your book, for gathering us for
the discussing it and also for your last
remarks. Thank you very much.
