by Daniel Sugarman, Jewish News
Jewish News sat down with Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, Bishop of Willesden, to discuss Jew-hate, the recent Synod and the recently emerged practice of referring to Jesus as a Palestinian
When 20,000 people gathered for the “Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism” rally on Whitehall in May, they may not have been expecting to be hearing from a senior Church of England official. But Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, Lead Bishop for interfaith engagement, gave a stirring and impassioned speech on the dangers of Jew-hate and where they can lead.
“Antisemitism possesses a particular persistence and ubiquity that demands moral clarity”, he told the crowd.
“It mutates. It survives. It appears across the political spectrum and feeds on fear, grievance, and division. And perhaps most dangerously of all, it grows when public voices choose outrage over responsibility; when influence is used not to strengthen the social fabric, but to tear it apart; when platforms capable of shaping culture become instruments for scapegoating, mockery, and suspicion.”
He went on to say that “when public figures trade in conspiracy, humiliation, and division, they do not merely inflame opinion; they corrode the moral foundations of a nation. Leadership that profits from division is not courage. It is recklessness. And rhetoric that dehumanises any community ultimately threatens every community.
“History teaches us with terrifying consistency that when antisemitism rises unchecked, democracy itself begins to decay.”