Home Secretary Amber Rudd sent her Chanukah greetings and reiterated the Government’s commitment to protect the Jewish community, in an article published in the Jewish Chronicle today.
The Home Secretary underlined: “Chanukah is a festival of home that reminds us all that light can triumph over darkness”.
She said: “This eight-day celebration is also an opportunity for us to recognise the important contribution that the Jewish community has made to all areas of life in Britain – from the arts, to architecture, from medicine to philanthropy. The Jewish community is a model of how to integrate successfully into a country”.
Home Secretary Rudd wrote: “Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and hatred have absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone”. She added that was why she announced last week to ban the neo-Nazi group National Action, published the Government’s hate crime action plan earlier in the year, and why the Government is providing £13.4 million over 2016-2017 to protect Jewish synagogues and schools.
In her article, the Home Secretary also referred to Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement at CFI’s Annual Business Lunch last week that “Britain will be adopting a formal definition of anti-Semitism”. She said: “that means there will be one definition of anti-Semitism – in essence, language or behaviour that displays hatred towards Jews because they are Jews – and anyone guilty of that will be called out on it”.
