“But as you kindle the Chanukah night tonight and on the nights to come, I want you to remember this. When the Macabees drove the forces of farkness out of Jerusalem, they had to do so on their own. Today, as Britain’s Jews seek to drive back the darkness of resurgent antisemitism, you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side.’’
LONDON—‘’Britain would not be Britain without its Jewish community,’’ said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his Chanukah message from Downing Street.
“Every decent person in this country ‘’is fighting resurgent antisemitism alongside British Jews, he added.
In a video released on Sunday, Johnson, whose Conservative Party won the general election earlier this month, said the festival was “a time to celebrate not just the miracle of the oil but your unique identity.’’ “To pop the Hanukkiah or Menorah in the window and say to the world, just as Judah and his small band of poorly-equipped Maccabees said to Antiochus III and his mighty Greek army all those years ago, ‘I am Jewish and I am proud of it.’”
“I know that recent years have not been easy ones for British Jews,” Johnson said. “In the media, on the streets and particularly online, antisemites have, in alarming numbers, been emboldened to crawl out from under their rocks and begin once again to spread their brand of noxious hatred far and wide.
He added: “But as you kindle the Chanukah night tonight and on the nights to come, I want you to remember this. When the Macabees drove the forces of farkness out of Jerusalem, they had to do so on their own. Today, as Britain’s Jews seek to drive back the darkness of resurgent antisemitism, you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side.’’
On Sunday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan addressed a Chanukah lighting in Trafalgar Square packed with thousands of people.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said: “We’re proud to be Jewish. We’re proud to be British. We’re proud of our Torah tradition.
“We will do everything we can to eradicate the scourge of antisemitism. We will not be silenced,” he added.