\nIt betrays the fortunate legacy of British Jews to hope that a Brexit will deny other refugees of war and dictatorship the sanctuary our great-grandparents received.
\nLike the overwhelming majority of British Jews, I am the descendant of ancestors who fled countries where persecution and pogroms were the norm. Put simply, if they had failed to find a safe haven in Britain, their descendants would not be alive today.
\nI find it hard to contain the shame that next Thursday, in the referendum on Britain\u2019s membership in the European Union, many Jews will vote to leave. For all the talk of sovereignty and democracy being used to justify the escape from the grasp of the venal, nonelected bureaucrats in Brussels, the real motive of those voting to leave will be a fear of immigrants.
\nIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re black-hatted frum or a bacon-eater who hasn\u2019t seen the inside of a shul for decades, and it\u2019s got nothing to do with your politics or how supportive or critical you are of Israel. There can be no more complete betrayal of the fortunate legacy of British Jews than to leave Europe in the hope that this will deny other refugees of war and dictatorship the sanctuary our great-grandparents received. Any attempt to justify it is rank hypocrisy bordering on racism.
\nThere is of course a legitimate concern over the fact that many of the potential immigrants today are Muslims, coming from countries where crude anti-Semitic propaganda is a major staple of the daily diet. It would be foolish to deny the need for vigilance by the security services and the media. Does that mean human beings who had the misfortune to be born in countries where despots use Israel and the Jews as scapegoats for their own crimes should be left to their fate?
\nFew of the millions of immigrants arriving in Britain over the last century came from model democracies. Our grandparents certainly didn\u2019t. And yet Britain is a more tolerant and open society than ever and, thanks to this tolerance, no minority has prospered more than British Jews.
\nDouble historical burden
\nAnd yet, according to a Jewish Chronicle poll conducted last month, over a third of the Jews in Britain are planning to turn their backs on their heritage and vote for a Brexit. Of course, about half are voting to remain (and 17 percent were still undecided), but it beggars belief that it\u2019s not just a few misfits and oddballs \u2013 at least 34 percent have no shame.
\nJews cannot afford the luxury of having short historical memories. British Jews bear a unique double historical burden. They\u2019re members of the one European minority that suffered more than any other throughout two millennia of mass murder, systematic discrimination and forced conversion. And they\u2019re citizens of the one country in the last century to fight the entire duration of two world wars and the Cold War to rid Europe of dictatorships \u2013 Nazism and Communism.
\nMany of the British complaints over the EU\u2019s restrictions and flawed policies are fully justified, but for all its Francophone dysfunction, today\u2019s Europe \u2013 which has enjoyed seven decades of peace and trades in one single market \u2013 is more than anything the victory of British values won through immense British sacrifice. And while many Jews justly feel that the EU\u2019s diplomats unfairly focus on criticizing Israel (which in real terms enjoys the most EU trade and cooperation in investment and research among non-European countries), how can they ignore the work done by the Union\u2019s institutions in both fighting anti-Semitism and safeguarding Jewish culture in Europe?
\nIn the company of Le Pen and Putin
\nLook around; there are still people among us who were alive back when nearly the entire continent was a hunting ground for Jews. Seventy years later, Jews have never been such equal and even honored citizens of Europe as they are today in the EU.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Judaism provides very little guidance for how Jews should vote in gentile elections so saying a vote against the EU is “unJewish” is hyperbole. There’s also nothing in Torah mandating that Jews vote in gentile elections to provide refugees with safe harbor. Judaism is almost entirely concerned with the preservation and welfare of Jews. It has very little to say about gentiles. Remember the story about the goy’s teeth? <\/p>\n