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Anti-semitism and the Church of England’s role is embarrassing, says the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Jewish leaders praised the Archbishop, Justin Welby.
He admitted the Church “compounded the spread” of anti-Semitism.
Welby’s comments appear in a booklet called ‘Lessons Learned’.
This is a collection of essays produced by the Holocaust Educational Trust and Community Security Trust.
“It is a shameful truth that, through its theological teachings, the church, which should have offered an antidote, compounded the spread of this virus,” he wrote.
“The fact that anti-Semitism has infected the body of the Church is something of which we as Christians must be deeply repentant.
“We live with the consequences of our history of denial and complicity.”
Jonathan Arkush praised Welby’s intervention as “powerful and timely.
“Millennia of theological anti-Semitism against Jews – including the canard that Jews killed Jesus – permeate European thought.”
The essay booklet also showcase a Tory minister blasting “dinner party anti-Semitism.”
They also show Communities Secretary Sajid Javid taking aim at “respectable middle-class people”.
Arkush said “dinner party anti-Semites… would recoil in horror if you accused them of racism, but are quite happy to repeat modern takes on age-old myths about Jews”.
“[They] can’t condemn the murder of Jewish children in France without a caveat criticising the Israeli government” and “demand that a Jewish-American artist declare support for Palestine if he wants to perform at a festival in Spain.
“I can’t remember the last time I spoke to a Jewish friend or colleague who hasn’t, at some point, found themselves sitting awkwardly at a party while a fellow guest railed against the international ‘kosher conspiracy’.”
Elsewhere in the booklet, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said that there were “lines which must not be crossed” in acceptable discourse.
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