It was possibly the most British thing I have ever done. My friend Ross and I stayed at the Bowl Inn near Charing on the Kent Downs ready to for our walk the next day. We had picked the Bowl Inn on this summer’s day ten years ago because of its special location.
Ross had always wanted to walk the Pilgrim’s Way to Canterbury. As a Christian, he wanted to have the experience of approaching the Patron Church of the whole Church of England just as pilgrims such as those depicted in the Canterbury Tales of the 14th Century would have done – on foot by the Pilgrim’s Way. Who better to do it with than his friend the Rabbi who at least would understand the spiritual significance, and was certainly partial to a pint of ale or two on the way, that’s where I came in. The pub was located right on the Pilgrim’s Way and so we set off after a hearty breakfast on a beautiful August day to walk the 14 miles to Canterbury Cathedral.
We walked across hill and dale, through ancient orchards, past churches and farms, over stiles and through country gates until we saw in the distance the enormity of the cathedral – huge in its valley promontory. Walking through the town after having been entirely rural on the Pilgrim’s Way, we truly felt like pilgrims of past centuries suddenly surrounded by people, hustle and bustle and then approaching the grand cathedral –literally cloistered in its quiet serenity.
We approached the altar of the cathedral and we were reminded that this was supposed to have been a place of sanctuary. But right there on that spot in 1170 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, thinking that at least in his Cathedral he would be safe from King Henry II who had asked “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?”, was brutally murdered by four Knights loyal to the King.
The children who went to the dance club in Southport on Monday to enjoy a day of Talyor Swift themed street dance should have been as safe as the nearly 200 children who came to our Kaytana club sessions here at EHRS this week.
With utter tragedy three girls aged between 6-9 years of age were murdered – we name them with our hearts in pain with their families and all Sandgrounders as the people of Southport are known, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar. Eight more children and two adults were injured many still in a critical condition. The knife attacker was 17 and has now been publicly identified and arrested.
I suspect that most people here today know what happened next – near rioting in Southport and Hartlepool, a demonstration in London with multiple arrests.
False claims about the suspect’s origins spread like wildfire with some falsely naming him as “Ali al-Shakati” with no official source for the name.
There were also claims that the suspect had arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2023, which was also false. Enormous numbers of social media posts spread speculating that the murderer was Muslim and an illegal migrant. The Islamic Centre, which acts as a mosque in Southport, was attacked with bricks and fire. The far right in Britain brandishing flags of St George stoked it all up as far as possible. And it’s still going on in other towns across Britain.
Then on Thursday we found out who actually was arrested and charged with doing it. A British born Christian young man of 17, born to hard working Rwandan parents in Cardiff who had immigrated to the UK completely legally. He just was of a skin colour and race that led the ignorant racists to assume that he was Muslim – and then decide that they should attack any local Muslim.
Throughout Pesach we Jews are reminded that we know the heart of a stranger. We also know that Islamophobia does not ever create a screen to make Jews safe. Indeed the members of the Southport Reform Synagogue, whose service today is being led by Student Rabbi Rachel Berkson, whom many of you will have met here at EHRS where she is doing some of her practical learning, is on high alert. I am sure many of us know the Pastor Martin Niemoller writing, which I paraphrase, that ‘first they came for the Muslims, and I didn’t speak out because I was not Muslim, then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.’
The writer Russ Jones wrote this which moved me and Rabbi Debbie earlier this week: “Even if the attacker was born overseas, Muslim, on benefits etc.- It doesn’t matter. You know who did this terrible crime? One Man.
Not his parents, not his compatriots , not his faith, not his colour, not his ancestry.
Just him.
Literally everybody else is innocent.”
It took Torah Judaism some time to reach the same conclusion but you can see this happening in the Book of Numbers which we complete today. Every one of our services ends with the words from Numbers Chapter 6:26 Yisa Adonai panav eL’cha v yasem lcha Shalom – My God lift God’s face towards you and give you peace. Every section of the service whether Amidah or Kaddish prays for peace with Oseh Shalom – May the maker of peace in the most High grant peace to us to all Israel, and as many of us add and to all of the world. In Midrash Numbers Rabbah 11:7 R. Eleazar Hakkappar says “Great is peace, for the seal of the whole of our prayers is peace, and the seal of the priestly benediction is peace.” What he says is part of an inspiring passage of many Rabbis reflections on the value of peace.
What a Jew should do and demand of our society that it should do when one man attacks others is to create peace and work for peace. The final portion of the Book of Numbers tells us how this should happen. Through the application of justice but never mob rule nor revenge feuding as that will pollute the whole land with violence. To make this happen Moses commands in God’s name that six towns will be set up throughout the soon to be reached promised land of Israel for anyone who has killed to flee to in order to await justice – the Levite Cities of Refuge. No one gets away with murder – but it is not in the hands of anyone but the legal authorities to exact justice. (Numbers 35:11ff) Judaism, real Judaism, utterly condemns the public spreading of violence outside of the rule of law, whether it be right wing British Thugs attacking a mosque in Southport or West Bank quasi-Orthodox settlers attacking a Palestinian village in perverted revenge.
Right wing rioters do not represent real Britishness but real Britishness still exists even in these tragic circumstances. Rabbi Debbie and Jon Freedman, a Sandgrounder, ex-Southportian, now working for the Jewish Leadership Council sent me these hopeful signs: Bricklayer Tony Hill worked all day in the hot sun voluntarily to restore the wall of the mosque. He said ‘If we have to build it again we will do just that.’
Jon Freedman shared a post that reported that racist thugs had gone to Southport to in the words of their chants ‘get their country back’ had kicked in the doors of Chanaka Balasuryla’s minimart and looted over £10k of stock. Local Southport hair salon owner Rose Tucker then immediately raised over £10k from hundreds of donors to pay her back for her losses.
That’s what real Britishness means – and Jews should never let the far right try to persuade us otherwise.
