THE two attacks on Somerton Road synagogue on July 18 and 19 are another disgraceful shame on our society which have damaged community relations that were already deteriorating. It is no wonder that, according to the second programme in the BBC's True North series broadcast in early March, Belfast is down to its last Minyan.
A Minyan is a council of 10 adult Jews who are needed to perform prayer services.
There is no justification for the anti-Semitic violence in Belfast.
If the violent bigots somehow thought they were harming Israel they were wrong. They were harming Judaism and the people who practice it. Under Jewish Halachic law Medinat Yisrael, the state of Israel, is not created in Eretza Yisrael, the land of Israel which is often defined as the land between the Nile and the Euphrates, until the Jewish Messiah has arrived. The Jewish Messiah has not arrived. In other words Israel is illegal under Jewish law.
Far from harming Israel they are actually helping Israel with its Fascist goals. It is advantageous for Israel if Jews elsewhere in the world are attacked and live in fear.
This latest unprovoked attack, like all sectarian, ethnocentric and racist attacks recently, must be condemned without reservation.
Attacks on Jews have doubled in Britain, we must not let it happen here in Northern Ireland or any other province in Ireland.
The Jewish population here is so small that it could not threaten anyone or even be perceived to be threatening anyone. This cowardly attack does not represent the overwhelming majority of people in this province and country.
I would like to state on behalf of the James Connolly Society and 1916 Societies that all Jews regardless of their origin are welcome in Ulster and every province in Ireland.
ÉAMONN MacGRIANNA
James Connolly Society Belfast BT11
