"let my people go" I screamed when Walter Wolfgang, 82 year old jewish refugee, was manhandled out of a New Labour meeting by security thugs under the terrorism act. I am not Jewish, but we on the left have always felt that people like Wolfgang were our people.Since the time of Lassalle the left happily picked its leaders from among Jews. We feel a sentimental philosemitism which leads us to expect that jews who gain power would behave better than others who gain power

Miriam has a very good heart, Michael and Alexei have very good minds. They are definitely Our People, definitely Jews, yet definitely secular



But the core of Jewish Identity is judaism. Secular Jews owe their Jewishness to their connection to a people who were persecuted for a religion, one which laid peculiar emphasis on booklearning and social justice. They generalised the demand for social justice to include all people, not just other Jews. They hey still feel connected to what might be called Yiddiskeit and to the German Jewish enightment of Marx and Heine. But Their grandchildlren will probably have lost that connection and will probably see no point in calling themselves Jews.
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