The boundaries of responsible discourse
CHIEF RABBI EPHRAIM MIRVIS
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis is the eleventh Chief
Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the
Commonwealth. He is the Associate President of
the Conference of European Rabbis and former
Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
No-one enjoys being on the receiving
end of an insult. Yet, it is a sad
indictment of our times that insults
of a certain mode can become the
norm. In politics and the celebrity
world they are widespread and likely
to be considered the ‘price of doing
business’. Prime Minister’s Questions
offers a useful illustration of this
phenomenon. Once a week, the men
and women whom we have elected to
represent us in Parliament trade jibes
and insults. It is rarely out of genuine
malice – in the modern world, that is
just how the game is played.
However, it is broadly understood
that there are lines which must not
be crossed. Imagine for a moment
that during a heated exchange in
Parliament, one MP began insulting
another’s immediate family or invoked
a personal tragedy or bereavement
as a line of attack. There would, quite
correctly, be uproar. Over time, we
have developed a clear sense of
where the limits of impassioned
debate should lie. Those who remain
within those limits win our respect
and those who wilfully stray beyond
them, very quickly earn our deepest
disapproval.
The most insidious kinds of insult, the
like of which we instantly recognise
as being entirely unacceptable are
recognisable because they attack the
deepest and most personal parts of our
identity. They target elements that are
so central to who we are, that often, we
couldn’t change them even if we wanted
to. And, since it is not a criminal offence
to throw around these kinds of insults,
we rely on the ‘court of public opinion’
to pass judgement on those who do so.
However, to my great sadness, when it
comes to antisemitism, the boundaries
of responsible discourse seem blurred.
The Holocaust remains unique in
contemporary Jewish consciousness
for its capacity to engender the most
visceral grief and abject pain. Nearly
two thirds of the Jewish population of
Europe were dehumanised, tortured
and then murdered. As Jews, we have
internalised the profound responsibility
to memorialise and honour them for the
rest of our lives - and we are determined
to teach the next generation to do
likewise. But while, for most of the latter
part of the twentieth century, that grief
seemed to be handled with appropriate
sensitivity, today there are many people
12 – Lessons Learned? Reflections on antisemitism and the Holocaust
Lessons Learned.indd 12
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