Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld at AIPAC offers a British perspective on our common challenges - and solutions

As fashion trends typically migrate from Europe's capitals to across the world, British Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld offers a sentry's perspective on the socio-political challenges Jewry faces. 


The challenges confronting British Jewry, as all European Jews today face, are formidable. The anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has many British Jews worried about their future in that society. The anti-Semitic activism in London has become so ominous that the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in central London congregation, at the recommendation of city officials, have removed all Jewish identifying signage from the outside of the edifice. 

British Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld remarks upon end of AIPAC Policy Conference

What motivated Marble Arch's Senior Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld to traverse the Atlantic Ocean as the sole, orthodox British rabbi at the AIPAC Policy Conference for the past three, consecutive years?  

In this exclusive video interview, Rabbi Rosenfeld, the successor to Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the tony, London institution, shares both what impressed him at AIPAC, and his European perspectives on North America's, Israel's, and the European Jewish situation. 

(Part 1)

An optimistic tone at the 2018 AIPAC convention was felt during the final-year of the Republican-dominated House of Representatives term - before several 2019-appointed congresswomen (Ilhan Omar, Rachel Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) introduced "Zionophobia" (a term coined by Prof. Judea Pearl) to the Democrat-dominated House this year. 

(Part 2)


How might Israeli defense against Hamas or their weaponizer, Iran, be visited upon diaspora Jewish communities? Fascists stoke anti-Israelism, he claims, which the BBC amplifies - deserving loud objection from the public. Rabbi Rosenfeld expounds on this in Part 3 of our interview. 

(Part 3)

Magna Carta's 800-year anniversary carries different lesson for Jews

Human rights laws existed before the Magna Carta by Ethel C. Fenig in American Thinker June, 2010

A few thousand years (18th to 15th century B.C.) before England's King John signed the Magna Carta against his will (800 years ago today) and the English were just another group of lawless, warring tribes- the Jews (former slaves who fled Egypt on their way to the Promised Land of Israel) willingly received the Torah at Sinai. Codified and interpreted by generations of rabbis, human rights were an integral way of life within Jewish communities, including those who lived in England in 1215 at the time of the signing of the Magna Carta. 

Magna Carta: Legacy from Beakus on Vimeo.

"Magna Carta's three Jewish clauses" by Rabbi Jonathan Romain (of Maidenhead Synagogue) in the Jewish Chronicle, 9/4/14

If you ask most people what they associate with Magna Carta, they may say: King John, barons, Runnymede, or the beginning of English democracy. What they will not say is: Jews.

Yet three of its clauses directly relate to Jews, and, in particular, their moneylending activities. It means that the document not only has enormous significance for English history, but also epitomizes the privileges and problems of medieval Anglo-Jewry.

RAF's Red Arrows decorate the comemoration of 8 centuries since King John sealed the original Magna Carta 

Magna Carta was signed on June 15 1215, and there will be many commemorative events for its 800th anniversary, but its Jewish roots go back to 1066. It is likely that individual Jews came to this country long before then, as far back as Roman times, whether willingly as traders, or by force as slaves. However, it is impossible to talk of a settled Jewish community until the late 11th century. It was then that William of Normandy brought over Jews from his French territory to help colonize his new kingdom.  Read more: