People who are antisemitic should face stiff legal and possibly even social consequences, Phil Rosenberg, the new head of the UK Jewish umbrella organization British Board of Deputies, told Michael Starr on The Jerusalem Post Podcast.
Rosenberg, who was newly elected to his position on May 12, is the youngest president in the umbrella organization’s over 260-year history.
He described to Starr one of his ambitious goals: The creation of a commission on antisemitism.
“What would a world of zero antisemitism look like? Obviously there won’t be a world of zero antisemitism if we don’t try to make one, but other than treating the symptoms as individual incidents, I wanted to take a step back and look at the causes and think about how we are fighting in different spheres,” he explained.
“I proposed a commission on antisemitism that will deal with four key strands with proposals and an advocacy program behind it. First of all, what is the law, is the law in the right place, is the law strong enough… and prosecution. We need to make sure there are stiff penalties, legal penalties but also maybe social penalties, for people who are antisemitic.”
Next, “We also need to look at institutions. A lot of Jewish communities around the world have just looked at civil society and it’s failed us. Whether it’s the media, whether it’s universities, whether it’s cultural institutions, whether it’s sports institutions in some cases. What’s going on here? Why is it that so many of them have performed so badly? What’s happened and what do we need to say to them to change it?
“Then, we need to look at the general problem of extremism. Unfortunately, our societies have seen growing radicalization, Islamist extremism, far-right extremism, far-left extremism. We need to grapple with this problem and deal with it. Not just because it’s a problem for Jews – it’s a problem with wider society, it’s even a problem for Muslims. The most people killed by Islamist extremism are Muslim. In Western societies, it’s Muslim kids who are being groomed and radicalized and perverted by these extremists.
“The fourth strand is the whole thing about inoculating people against the virus of antisemitism. Are we doing enough?”
A game changing strategy
Rosenberg also proposed what he described as a game changing strategy for promoting change, directly taking advantage of the Board of Deputies‘ structure.
“What if we got these 300 deputies from around the country, politically on the Right, politically on the Left, religiously conservative, religiously liberal – if we get all of them working together, pulsing out the messages to their local politicians, their local faith leaders, their local media, local universities – suddenly, that’s a game changer. And it’s a model I think is replicable for other Diaspora communities.”
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