A few years ago whilst I was the Rabbi in Newcastle upon Tyne we lived next door a delightful non
Jewish couple called Jane and Peter. They were superb neighbours and we were
the best of friends. Each year when it came to the December holiday period they
would send us a card reading: “Seasons greetings from the Goys next door!”
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| Chas and me. Photo courtesy of Murray freedman |
Last night I attended a superb talk under the auspices of
our Adult Education KKW2 programme in my Shul delivered by Chas Newkey-Burden.
He is a non Jewish guy who has a blog- you can reach him here at: http://www.oyvagoy.com/2012/01/24/rabbi-yehudah-blacks-blog-2
Yes –you read that right Oy Vay Goy. Chas is an advocate
for Israel.
He explained to his audience why he exactly came to reaching this path:
“As well as wanting to support Israel I’m also disgusted by
antisemitism in general, as I am by all bigotry from sexism to homophobia and
Islamophobia. However, of all the bigotries that exist antisemitism seems the
most universally held: from the numbskull skinhead to the sophisticated leftie
to the aristocratic Brit and nearly everyone in between. I don’t mean to be
flippant when I ask surely the bigger mystery is not why I oppose anti semitism
but why more other people don’t? My hope is that this blog can help in some
small way to work against anti-Israel bigotry and anti semitism in general, and
perhaps bring some moments of comfort to those who suffer as a result of them”.
Thank you Chas for a fabulous evening!!
Thank you for having me!
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying reading your blog. It's very thought-provoking and entertaining.
From the Goy (not quite) next door!
Thank you Chas- I take that as a real compliment- especially coming from you-since you are a professional blogger. I see also from your blog that you have become friendly with some chabad Rabbis-a very good bunch of guys!
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