Anti-Semitism

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Thursday 13th September 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, in a recent interview, my noble friend Lord Sacks said that,

“the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews”.

Anti-Semitism is a virus that singles out Jews but which then spreads its hateful contagion to other minorities and to vulnerable groups, who are all too easily scapegoated. The noble Lord, Lord Popat, reminded us how Pastor Martin Niemöller, having failed to speak out against the rise of Nazism, described how a democratic nation with, nominally, millions of good citizens, succumbed to the virus of anti-Semitism, paving the way for the Holocaust. One who of course did speak out was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis. He famously said:

“Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”.


Never let that be said of any of us.

There is an urgent need to confront anti-Semitism and to ensure that vibrant and inspiring educational learning hubs are created that challenge the rising generation to see the link between the Holocaust and contemporary forms of genocide, and to see the links between anti-Semitism and racism. As recent events have underlined, we must urgently redouble our efforts in combating this hateful virus that, yes, invariably begins with the Jews, but never ends with them.