Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London, a.k.a. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, on Sunday warned that many of the estimated 300,000 Jews living in the UK today are contemplating a mass exodus as their trust is waning in the country’s ability to protect them against a rising tide of anti-Semitism.
Sacks the BBC’s Andrew Marr he knows of Jewish families that are already planning to leave Great Britain because of their fear that the Labour leader—should he become prime minister—would unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism.
Sacks, who is a member of the House of Lords, told BBC that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn must “recant and repent” because his public views regarding British Jews, combined with his friendly ties with the terror group Hamas, are sure to engulf the country “in the flames of hatred.”
“Jews have been in Britain since 1656 – I know of no other occasion in these 362 years when Jews, the majority of our community, are worrying, ‘Is this country safe to bring up our children?’” Sacks said, stressing that “Corbyn poses a danger as prime minister unless he expresses clear remorse for past statements.”
“Now this is very, very worrying and there is only one word for this, that is anti-Semitism,” Sacks said, adding, “When people hear the kind of language that’s been coming out of Labour, they cannot but feel an existential threat.”
Sacks defended his comparison of Corbyn’s comment which was insensitive to British Zionists’ feelings, with Enoch Powell’s racist “River of blood” speech against immigration in the 1960s. “I had to issue a warning – anti-Semitism has returned to mainland Europe within living memory of the Holocaust,” Sacks explained.
“Anyone who befriends Hamas and Hezbollah, anyone who uses the term ‘Zionist’ loosely without great care, is in danger of engulfing Britain in the kind of flames of hatred that have reappeared throughout Europe and is massively irresponsible,” he pressed. “Until he expresses clear remorse for what he’s said and what his party has done, then he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was.”
Lord Sacks announced he would not meet with Corbyn until he sees evidence that the latter had sincerely repented.
Hey, Yom Kippur is just around the corner, Mr. Corbyn…
