Chief Rabbi: Anti-Semitism is 'most successful ideology'

The survival of anti-Semitism has made it the most successful ideology of the 20th century, Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, said on Wednesday.

In an interview with The Independent to mark his 10th anniversary as the leader of Britain's Jews, he said anti-Semitism was flourishing in Austria, France and the former Soviet Union and its endurance made him ask if anything had been learnt from the "tragic" history of the 20th century.

Dr Sacks recently pulled out of a United Nations conference on racism in South Africa in protest at language used towards Israel in a document that he claimed showed "the world's oldest hatred" had resurfaced within the UN. But he said he did not see anti-Semitism increasing in Britain and was confident that "British sense" would ensure it did not get a foothold.

Dr Sacks also said he would call on the Government to pass laws to stop husbands denying their wives a religious divorce.

Jewish women who get a civil divorce from their husbands but are refused a religious divorce cannot remarry in an Orthodox synagogue and their children are held to be illegitimate for 10 generations.

Dr Sacks will urge the Government to back a Private Member's Bill by the Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore, which would make the granting of a religious divorce a condition of a civil divorce.