Letters - 06 February 2026
From challenging antisemitism to a huge capacity
Challenging antisemitism
As a Jew, I particularly welcome the new guide on recognising and challenging antisemitism (see ‘Challenging antisemitism’, 23 January). The range of references and resources in the text was truly impressive. But I was disappointed that the authors failed to give a mention to the important work being done by the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, part of the University of London, one of only two university centres in the whole of Europe dedicated to understanding this phenomenon.
Ken Cohen
Invoking religion
The dire situation in Gaza has understandably angered many Quakers, and their condemnation of the Israeli government has in turn attracted condemnation as being antisemitic. This raises a serious question as to what is the appropriate Quaker response to such egregious oppression and violence against fellow human beings.
It’s particularly challenging when religion is invoked to justify violence, as in the crusades, and the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland. To the extent that the Israeli government relies on religious text to justify its actions, it is bringing Judaism into disrepute. So who is being antisemitic?
David Wright
Never again
Ol Rappaport (‘A human project’, 23 January) presented us with a detailed, harrowing and immensely moving set of personal stories to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. As he rightly reminds us, these atrocities were not carried out from a distance, but by human beings on other human beings: close, personal encounters that happened in many different countries – by neighbours, by mothers, by fathers, sons and brothers who had come to see their fellow citizens, from babies to elders, as vermin to be exterminated.
On that same day, Etty Hillesum Cards began broadcasting its third vigil, naming the names of 18,454 children killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. The readings by 370 people take more than two-and-a-half days to read and commemorate what one Jewish reader described as ‘the Holocaust of another nation’. We cannot forget that 29 January is the third anniversary of the up-close-and-personal murder of six-year-old Hind Rajab as she waited for rescue by paramedics in a car filled with the dead bodies of her family. You can listen to the six hours of her desperate phone call on YouTube.
On social media, someone describing themselves as a Quaker Friend of Israel posted that Hind’s family were to blame for ignoring IDF instructions. But the reality was that they desperately attempted to do as they were told, but ran into a murderous road block. This is only one of the thousands of atrocities carried out against the Palestinian people, which parallel those that Ol so vividly describes. Never again means never again for all peoples.
Nicola Grove
Interconnection
So long as we follow traditional (‘classical’) theism, we’ll always ask ‘Where was God in Auschwitz, Gaza etc?’ (‘A human project’, 23 January). Classical theism works with a dualism that distinguishes God from ‘sinful’ humanity, and humanity from ‘fallen’ nature. Some of its adherents excuse ‘almighty’ God, maintaining ‘He’ uses evil to test humanity’s faith in ‘Him’. Really?
There was no evil before humanity. It is we who initiate and implement it, and can rid ourselves of it. All evil is time-bound; we know horrific occurrences like Auschwitz can and do result. But can God-Love prevent human and natural disasters? Nondualism’s God cannot unilaterally interfere in human or nature’s affairs. If this were possible, it would mean irrevocably altering reality itself, thus precipitating the end, inter alia, of our free will and ethical reasoning. This impossibility means Love only loves and unconditionally. Hence, God-Love has no need, for instance, to forgive.
Uncreated, unbound Divine Consciousness – all is interconnected and interdependent, a Oneness in which everyone-everything is related. Until humanity understands this and its implications fully, we’ll continue to mire ourselves in ignorance, separation and violence, and fail, therefore, to remember who we actually are: Divine Consciousness.
As a species we’re still infants. But continuing to work patiently in peace, justice and compassion, doggedly putting one foot in front of the other, we’ll eventually reach that moment when, fully matured in Love, we’ll declare in Truth that at last we’ve forever left behind the last vestiges of our barbarism.
Gerard Guiton
Three questions
I was given some very useful advice by a weighty Friend, to be applied to all utterances, whether in the form of letters, online posts or spoken word.
There are three questions: ‘Is it true?’; ‘Is it kind?’; ‘Is it necessary?’
Nothing should be said unless it satisfies at least two of these.
‘Barrettpsych’, from the Friend website
Extending the rule
In relation to Barrettpsych’s comment (above): the weighty Friend is wrong, sadly. According to their prescription, one can say hostile, cruel and damaging things, as long as one thinks they are ‘necessary and true’. At the other extreme one can go on endlessly talking or writing in a kind, and perhaps true, way, without a word of it being important, significant or necessary. Neither of these is helpful, but one can see examples of both in letters to the Friend, perhaps.
If the weighty Friend extended the rule to include all three criteria, they would then be building something more Quakerly. This, however, is a more demanding, stringent, and difficult criterion. Not many people, at least in my experience, are capable of this more demanding effort.
Neil M, from the Friend website
A huge capacity
2026 has been a grim time so far, but it is also an opportunity for deep change. Politicians use fear and selfishness as a basis for action, but our shock at this can wake us up and allow us to see our amazing potential.
We humans have a huge capacity we call consciousness. It is at the source of our being, more basic than matter. And we Quakers have a unique practice of silence. In our manner of worship, we find openness and connection with others. These two states can help us survive as a species, and develop a higher state of consciousness. They allow us to accept differences and find ways of working together.
In his radical book Truth of the Heart, Rex Ambler focuses on six steps outlined by George Fox. The first is to find our centre, in which there is the source of life. The sixth step is revolutionary! Fox wrote ‘that you may be instrumental to open the eyes of others’. Rex’s version of this works well for me: ‘Awakening people to an awareness of reality.’
The Quaker way helps us come out of the individualism and materialism that dominate our culture. We need to accept differences and value interconnection, community and friendship. We can even take a further step and learn from different cultures new ways of being. Above all, we need to respond to the suffering of people facing conflict, war, floods and other disasters. Fortunately, we can have confidence in the human potential to learn from this grim period. Being open to the light of others means the future of humanity.
How can we connect more with each other? My Sunday mornings are either at worship at Congénies, or on Zoom with Les Amis Connectés. On Zoom, there are frequent Experiment with Light meetings (contact experimentwithlight@gmail.com). I enjoy these, which last one hour, every Friday morning with Friends from the UK, Latvia, Israel and Russia, and one Tuesday each month in French.
We all have this wonderful potential of consciousness but we need to remember and use it often… like now.
Richard Thompson
