Julia Neuberger announces her intended purpose at the outset of this book: she describes her role, vis-à-vis anti-semitism, as “the canary singing in the mine”. I think she misunderstands her own metaphor. The canary alerted the miners to danger not by singing but by coming to the surface stone dead, poisoned by methane or carbon monoxide. Given that gas was the method used in the Nazis’ mass-extermination programme, this misuse of metaphor is all the more perplexing (since the author at no point suggests a similar fate might await Britain’s Jews). In fact, many in the community might regard with scepticism the claim that the author — the Senior Rabbi at West London Synagogue — has been alert to threats that others have failed to sniff out.…

Source: The Times May 25, 2019 23:08 UTC