Europe’s most prominent rabbi has told Sky News he holds Iran responsible for the rise of antisemitism in recent years and believes European countries must do much more to support Iranian protesters in overthrowing the Tehran regime.
Speaking on Holocaust Memorial Day, Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said anger against Jews had grown to dangerous levels, regardless of their views on politics, religion or the war in Gaza.
He said there was the prospect of “antisemitic acts against Jews who live anywhere in the world, who have nothing to do with the Israeli government and nothing to do with Israel“.
But he said Jews and Israel would both “prevail”, telling me: “Eighty years after the end of the Holocaust, Jews are back as a sovereign nation in Israel, united with the Jews who live all over the world.”
We spoke in Jerusalem, meeting in the shadow of the Western Wall. It is a place of pilgrimage for Jews of all countries, which he referred to as the “source of Jewish identity”.
But for many of those Jews, this has been a time marked by a surge in antisemitic acts.
The attacks of 7 October 2023, and the relentless Israeli military response that followed, led to a sharp increase in antisemitic hate crimes across Europe, including France and the UK.
ICE agents to have role at Winter Olympics – as crackdown’s ‘public face’ to leave Minneapolis
Storm Chandra: Burst banks in ‘one of the worst affected areas’ in Ireland
Doomsday Clock moved closer to midnight than ever: What is it and how does it work?
Since the start of the war in Gaza, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli military action.
“The criticism of war is legitimate and there is criticism of that in Israel, too,” Rabbi Goldschmidt told Sky News.
“But when the criticism goes beyond the pale – delegitimising the existence of the state of Israel or allegations that have no basis in fact, that’s when you traverse from criticism to antisemitism.”
He blamed “extremists” from the “far right and far left in the United States and Europe” and claimed that they were receiving support and backing from Iran.
“All these people who went and discredited the Jewish people in Israel over the last two years – I don’t see them on the streets regarding Iran. I don’t see one voice talking about the 30,000 civilians killed in Iran. Why not?”
Rabbi Goldschmidt, who represents hundreds of orthodox rabbis across Europe, believes the Iranian regime, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sits at the centre of a web that seeks to undermine, damage and ultimately destroy both Israel and Jewish people.
‘Jews better off in London’
On Gaza, he was clear that Israel should not control the Strip, but rather “it should be administered by a consortium of Arab countries supervised by the United States and other Western powers to provide security, and a viable way of economic support for the Palestinian population in Gaza”.
I asked whether he would like to see a two-state solution that would create a Palestinian state separate from Israel.
“Yes, but in the same way that the European Union was impossible as long as Nazi Germany existed, so the two-state solution is impossible as long as Iran is creating failed states and terror hubs all over the Middle East,” he said.
“That is why Iran needs a successful revolution. And they need Western support. I told my colleagues in Europe: ‘You can do much more to support the demonstrators.’
“They can offer asylum. They can offer support for those leading politicians and people in the security forces who switched sides. Much more can be done.”
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
The rabbi did, however, praise the efforts of British institutions to protect Jewish people, laughing off the idea that they might want to claim asylum in America – an idea apparently floated by the Trump administration.
“I think the Jews are much better off in London,” he said. “I think the government in England has done a lot to protect the Jewish community.
“The government is friendly, the King is friendly with the Jewish community. The attack in Manchester was the exception to the rule.”
Read more:
Ministers in tears as Holocaust survivor speaks
Remains of last Israeli hostage found in Gaza
Rabbi Goldschmidt is not considered an extreme voice in the Jewish world, but his voice does resonate widely.
He was clear that he thought European nations had tried to tackle antisemitism – his praise for the UK was earnest. So, too, were his claims about the dangers posed by Iran.
And he reflects an anxiety in this region. Many in Israel were hoping to see the protesters prevail, and the Ayatollah fall from power. Neither of those has happened.
