By COLlive reporter
Israel has once again come under attack in the UK, this time with a cartoon in the Sunday Times depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a long nose leaning over a wall being built with the blood and bodies of Palestinians.
In another instance just a few days before, member of Parliament David Ward said it was a shame Jews didn’t learn lessons from the Holocaust in the way they treat Palestinians.
This prompted the BBC to make it a main feature on their Sunday Morning program. They called in Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet who admitted that up until an hour before Shabbos he wasn’t sure he could be bothered waking so early on Sunday morning and making the four hour round trip in a taxi.
“My every instinct said I should do it. Someone needs to step up to the plate but it would be an exhausting commitment,” Schochet, Rabbi of the well-known Mill Hill Synagogue and a regular commentator in the British media, told COLlive.com.
Following the show, which is broadcast live with several million viewers across the country, Rabbi Schochet said he was glad he did it. “I hadn’t realized I was going to be the lone voice against some pretty nasty rhetoric.”
Responding to the official question posed by the program, “Is Criticism of Israel Anti Semitic?” Rabbi Schochet replied: “It would be absurd to suggest that criticizing Israel is Anti Semitic. It would also be absurd to suggest that Anti Semites don’t use Israel as the whip with which to lash out against Israel. Somewhere in between the lines unquestionably get blurred.”
He cited former CNN reporter Helen Thomas and MP Ward as classic examples and argued that the Times cartoonist, who has since apologized, as did the paper’s editor, was “at best guilty of gross na?vet?.”
Opposing him was Tony Greenstein, a Jew who heads the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. He argued that if Israel is behaving like Nazis then the comparison is legitimate. He also mumbled something about Rabbi Schochet belonging to the “racist Lubavitch movement.”
Rabbi Schochet said, “I’ve been up against him before. He gets hysterical. I just let him talk and discredit himself with his own ramblings.” Though at one point Schochet did accuse Greenstein of “treading on the graves of his ancestors.”
Another opponent was Reverend David Jennings who weighed in attacking Israeli policy. Rabbi Schochet asked him if he considered Holocaust depiction as Anti Semitic. When he replied, “it was unfortunate,” Rabbi Schochet challenged, “it is precisely your willingness to label it as ‘unfortunate’ but your unwillingness to condemn it as Anti Semitic that reflects the root of the problem.
“Let me give you a lesson in Anti Semitism,” Schochet told a Muslim audience member: “When something is universal and one person is singled out, that’s bigotry. Even if you believe that Israel is guilty of whatever violations, to single them out when there are far worse violations all over the Middle-East, is blatant prejudice against Israel which is unequivocally underpinned by Anti Semitic sentiment.”
One Schochet fan summed up the debate with a tweet: @RabbiYYS really made Tony Greenstein look irrelevant; was firm with a condescending vicar; and made the Muslim Council of Britain rep choose his words carefully.”
And another wrote: “Very proud and grateful to have you as representative of the Jewish community. The perfect educated voice of reason and calm.”
Rabbi Schochet further reflects on his experience and answers one outstanding question on his blog shul.co.uk
Rabbi come to Montreal ,we love you here .those ill informed idiots looked loke retarded imbicles trying to get their point accross,with lies etc.good job
j.c.
So much hatred towards the Jews…and the worse is…by other Jews who feel if we take sympathy or empathy towards whatever Palastinians are….then they won’t hate us….unfortunately….they are going to hate us ….no matter what we are going to do..pro or con…Israel….wait….it is just a matter of time before everybody will be against us…just like the Nazis wanted everyone to be against us….In Hitler’s time if you took a pro Jewish …let us leave them alone …they only disagree with our policy //// his brownshirts would have beaten you to death the next day…for voicing opposition…that is the difference….but even… Read more »
The worse ,,,the very worse anti-semites ….are Jews who hate other Jews for being able to keep the Torah and because they do not want to….they dirty our names…and themselves also.
wake up and smell the coffee…. there is anti semetism everywhere… you think that america is any better? i dont think moving out of europe would help anything. and just the fact that you are saying that we should move away would be giving in to the anti-semetism which we are fighting. it is surrendering and is pointless… we have been fighting this since creation and will only be fully solved with mashiach… we have to show them that we are and will continue to stand strong no matter what they say and Rabbi Shochet did a good job of… Read more »
on bottom left. Priest and other guy very animated with the pro Palestine green shirt in middle. It’s like they’re all talking to him at once. He sure got them on the run!
always was a fan. now even more so. Gd bless you!
Rabbi Shochet, way to step up! You are such an inspiration!!!
The concept of “human rights” is a minefield that can justify both abarchism and communism etc. For instance, Israel denies its citizens the “right” to murder family members with impunity which the PA supports.
Really? Would love to see you in the hot seat under that kind of pressure being televised live. Pontificating avout what he should have said. How stupid. He was great. Deal with it.
what are they thinking?!!
not agreeing with israel’s every move is far from anti semetic, what a load of garbage, just look at israeli citizens, thei voting of the last election, basically telling bibi he is not the de facto king when they voted for a more pragmatic leader, saying that they do not completely agree with bibi’s polices…..sound familiar here? so now a large part of the israeli population is anti semetic? what a JOKE! numerous knesset members, who if you guys pay any real attention to israeli politics, would know hold views that would be deemed unacceptable here, but the isreali people… Read more »
Nor is murder comparable to the holocaust. To say Israel comes short of Nazism doesn’t make Israel look good… He didn’t have to go into detail and give his reasons why he doesn’t accept the premise that Israel commits human rights violations, all he had to say is “though I disagree with you that Israel commits human rights violations, for arguments sake, I’ll accept your premise that they do, however…”
The debate was not about what you are speaking of, and if you go back to the end of the debate you will see him refute a guy for trying to talk about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. Because this debate was NOT about Israeli policy itself but how it is used as a whip for anti Semites. And Rabbi Shochet made it clear that Israeli Policy toward the Palestinians is not in any way comparable to the Holocaust and this is what the debate was about.
#43 THANK YOU i always ask that.
is Rabbi Shochet going to read all these comments about him???
just out of interest after all the discussions it has set off……
Wow. Rabbi Shochet is very articulate and handled those hot-heads very well. It shows you how emotionally charged these people are and we know that emotion is the opposite of intelligence.
These kind of live debates are tough to maintain mental acuity through and are ripe for a misspeak that will certainly be harped on. I commend Rabbi Shochet on a job very well done and holding his own throughout!
We could all go on websites and educate ourselves as was suggested. But as someone said it’s a gift which BH some are blessed to remain focussed under pressure, razor sharp critical thinking and a fast enough mind to hear the question and formulate a good response and retort. His father was always like that. His uncles do that in different settings. Is it a genetic thing? I don’t know. But its not something you can learn from a facts based website.
Go Rabbi Schochet!!!!
You Rock!!!
http://www.truepeace.org
the anti Israel crowd check out this site… deprogramprogram.com where he tears apart and sifts though the lies against our people and Israel, how the ‘settlements’ were never settled before and dont belong to the arabs, the fake pales—nian people never existed until they chose to create them as a tool against Israel, etc etc… I did find that Rabbi Shochet had some supporters, he answered very well. Also interesting is the cartoon that takes what the egyptians did to our people building babies in the walls and turning it around against us. The Jew haters are so pathetic they… Read more »
if you realized that guy with the green shirt screaming the whole time while he was criticizing he said : LUBAVITCH
You made everybody else look mad
you dont need him in the us. Anti Semitic UK has a far mre negative influence on the world than the US.
For attending and making such a dignified intelligent presence.
except the rabbi
Only here does “educated” equal “college.” That’s the most absurd statement i’ve ever heard.
Although I went to college, I am educated in MANY THINGS I never studied there.
1) Generally the Rabbi did a great job which can be simply defined by Calm, Cool and Collected. 2) I had the same question which no.43 had that he across to the simple viewer as if he agreed to the lies that the the Jewish state is making, HOWEVER, I think the reason he did not address that was because that would be going off the subject and would turn into a circus. 3) Being educated? I will go as far as to say he is a blessing for all of us and is an exception which most people with… Read more »
While these Isreal on Palestinian killings do happen, what people dont understand it may be a casualty or a attack they are only done as a retaliation on Gaza or wherever because we were attacked. Isreal is sworn to protect its people which is why the Isreali army is called Isreal Defense Force. Keyword DEFENSE. I do look forward to comments.
49 is right but bimokom sheain ish so I guess it needed to be done. He still made a strong case and kidush shaim shamayim. I think his last comment left him open as was said above but knowing the clock is counting you down what more are you gonna do? I think the argument goes even if you think Israel is guilty why single them out. that’s what he elaborated on later on his blog. Problem with dealing with that issue is that is a debate that carries on for another half hour because their idea of violations keeping… Read more »
…in a forum that gives you 20 second sound bites. You’re never gonna make your case
Really a very impressive program and interestingly enough it seemed that most people were ready to side with the Rav,
but I credit rabbi Shochet for not getting dragged into that debate rather defending the point he was making. You need more than that kind of air time to get into everything. Staying on topic and forcefully keeping to his point is what made him succeed as well as he did and make a big kiddush Haahsem at the same time. When the priest tried to go off topic he responded he was not going to go there because that’s not the question. sign of a very controlled and critical thinker. Shkoiach.
the rashi sicha on why the torah starts with the creation of the world. When the gentiles will claim that we are theives, taking land that does not belong to us, we answer them that Hashem created the world and chooses who to give what. He gave the Jews the land of Israel. End of story!
It is undoubtedly clear that Rabbi Schochet had a difficult task to perform especially in context of the projected premise that they were injecting as well as the imbalanced makeup of the audience. He certainly did a greater job than I could have ever done in putting them in place. However, it appears to the eye of the common viewer that he accedes to their labeling of Israel as a human rights violator and merely takes them to task for dwelling on Jew’s sins obsessively and overlooking the sins of all others. That was very hurtful to me that he… Read more »
Wow! What a calm tone and demeanor and what wisdom and knowledge.
Kol hakavod – what nachas you are giving to the One Above!
Why wasn’t it mentioned when that guy asks how israeli can back its policies of killing children and other garbage like that, that the Arabs are the ones sending their own children to be killed as suicide bombers, as well as many other terrorist attacks on Israel. History is the best proof, if you give arabs more land they use it to be closer to killing Jews. The reason they all live poor and crammed is because they’re own leaders, Hamas, reigns over Gaza and controls how they live so that the Palestenians will require to rely on them for… Read more »
Torahcafe.com has a lot of his lectures online. and some podcasts and articles at shul.co.uk/rabbi
Great job…
i think leaving europe is a little hysterical. The Rebbe sent shluchim there for a reason. Jews are there to stay. Running achieves nothing. Just pray for Moshiach. Meanwhile rely on the Rebbe’s shluchim to fight on the battlefield as this Rabbi does so amazingly.
Thank you rabbi Schochet amazing rabbi keep it up
You are making the Rebbe proud! Keep up the great work.
He was great! But wasn’t the blond guy next to him also defending israel, as well as the man behind him who raised his hand and was called on?
Thank you for the inspiration. I follow you around each year at the National Jewish Retreat and look forward to seeing you again this year. Keep up the wonderful work. Chazak V’ematz
Anywhere else I can watch stuff of R. Shochet?
Teach ‘The 7 Noahide Laws’ and make people feel important as ‘The Rebbe’ said.
Almost as good as his cousin R’ Dovi from BH florida!
B.H. Rabbi Schochet, Amazingly, you had to stand alone in defending Israel, among’st all of these Ant-Semites, and I am sure that you had much more to say, but you were cut short by time. On the contrary, you did as well as possible, in answering, the many Anti-Semitic questions put before you, at one to one, and you being the One. Kol Hacovod, much Hatzlocha to your dear wife, family and yourself.
B”H
That was incredible and inspiring! May you and your family be blessed with health and prosperity Rabbi Schochat. Thank you for being a true Defender of Israel.
I agree with 25. Rabbi Schochet’s father is educated and that’s why he lectures all over the world. He made sure to educate his son so he too now lectures everywhere. I heard Yitzchok speak on medical ethics to an audience of doctors. It was stellar. To be able to speak to different crowds on different subjects and make a big impression is what the Rebbe wanted of his shluchim. I’m sorry, but education is necessary to achieve that.
#18 I think what #14 means is not necessarily to we all need college degrees but rather we should all be thoroughly versed in historical facts, al derech “know what to answer a herectic” if this is his point he is absolutely right, propaganda is able to spread only when we lack knowledge of the truth
what did that guy ramble on about Lubavitch? You can hear it in the video. not sure what it has to do with anything. or does it?
Sounds like the golam tape!
“education has nothing to do with it?” are you KIDDING? when i speak to people around this neighborhood (CH) they often are clueless regarding Israel and many other topics which are very important in today’s world, ESPECIALLY if you are going out on Shluchis where people will be challenging you. I’ve spoken to Shluchim as well who know NOTHING about politics-not saying a person needs to be an expert in the field, but it’s EXTREMELY important to be/SOUND educated if you are representing not only the Jewish people, but Lubavitchers! And yes being knowledgeable is due to EDUCATION. Not necessarily… Read more »
I am impressed… Shame Rabbi Schochet didn’t have more time to talk. Everyone else in the audience sounded like bumbling idiots.
of a lamb surrounded by 70 depicable wolves …
kudos to Rabbi Shochet for fending them off and holding his
own with grace and class. Yasher Koiach!
I must say Rabbi Shochat did a fantastic job here.
you said it right!
Did an amazing job!!!!
that was absolutely brilliant. he kept a calm demeanor the entire time even when being criticized and interrupted and made a massive Kiddush hashem and kiddush Lubavitche.
well done!
what are you saying? just because he has a degree according to his website (shul.co.uk/rabbi) doesn’t mean that we all need one in order to do our thing. many shluchim don’t have formal education but still perform admirably in the field. Schochet is smart and articulate yes. But education is nothing to do with it.
Cool, calm, collected and wipes the floor with his opponents. I think he turned out to be the lion. Loved the way that priest flustered. And the madman in the green t-shirt was out of control. Schochet’s condescending smile even when being interrupted by the self-hating Jew is a classic putdown. Top marks from me.
get out of europe. The rabbi performed spectacularly under such pressure and didn’t lose his cool once. but look at the antisemitism in the room. just a microcosm of what goes on in the country and worse throughout europe. Kudos to the rabbi but he would be doing a bigger mitzvah if he publically encouraged people to leave europe.
You MADE it!
This must have been not easy at all.
THIS MY FRIENDS IS WHY ALL JEWISH PPL SHOULD BE EDUCATED AND WHY I SEE NOT BEING EDUCATED AS A SIN AGAINST OURSELVES
this man is so smart
i wish him well and his family as well should be well
his farther is talmud chacom and needs a speedy recovery
you made my morning and in your zchus all klal yisroel should be well and safe
i share your sentiment but it would be nice to have Rabbi Schochat senior back on the scene and we all wish him a refuah shlaima to have one of the best voices in chabad in strong form again
its special when a father who did so much debating against negative forces in his life has a son who does the same job. yofeh koiach haben! Rabbi Emanuel Shochet you should be gezunt and have lots of nachas
a kiddush Hashem and a kiddush Lubavitch. Like father like son.
a brilliant man!
good on you rabbi!!!!
great fan מקדש שם שמים ברבים תלך מחיל אל חיל
y.m .h naclah
Wow rabbi shochet is very good
Rabbi you nailed it! Kudos!
“Very proud and grateful to have you as representative of the Jewish community. The perfect educated voice of reason and calm.” Hear! Hear! Now bring him back to the US. We can use him here
That’s our Rabbi Shochet. We are lucky to have him in England to speak where no one else can or does. Haoineh l’Daniel bigov aroyos! (He who answered Daniel in the lion’s den)
to be able stand up to these people spitting lies and hate right in your face and to be able keep your cool is most impressive. Rabbi Schochet you made a great Kiddush Hashem, and said your part with clarity and conviction.
He was great kol hakavod.
Wow how much antisemitism there is in this world its crazy