Modern Britain is no longer a Christian country, a report by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life concludes. It calls on institutions to adapt to the nation’s increasingly multi-faith and non-religious makeup.
End of quote from the YouTube page of this RT report. Now, I don’t carry a torch for Christianity, but I find these kinds of reports interesting, along with who generates them.
So, who is the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life? It appears that it’s an offshoot of the Woolf Institute:
The purpose of the Woolf Institute is to serve the public good. The Institute studies how relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims can enhance our understanding of key concepts of public life: community and identity, mutual respect, personal responsibility, and social solidarity. Combining theology with the social sciences and the humanities, the Woolf Institute seeks to strengthen the ethical framework that is needed for our political, economic and social life…
… The Institute is named in honour of The Rt Hon Lord Woolf, CH, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and was founded by Dr Edward Kessler MBE, described by the Times Higher Education Supplement as ‘probably the most prolific figure in interfaith academia’.
End of quote.
And what is the background of Lord Woolf of Barnes:
Woolf was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on 2 May 1933, to Alexander Susman Woolf and his wife Leah (née Cussins). His grandfather Harry was a naturalised Briton of Polish or Russian Jewish origins.
End of quote. So, Lord Woolf is Jewish.
And as we saw above, the Woolf Institute was “founded by Dr Edward Kessler MBE, described by the Times Higher Education Supplement as ‘probably the most prolific figure in interfaith academia’.
Now, you may recognise that Kessler is also a Jewish name. So, let us look at Dr Edward Kessler’s bibliography:
2013 Jews, Christians and Muslims, London: SCM
2010 Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2006 Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., J. Aitken & E. Kessler, New York: Paulist Press
2006 What do Jews Believe? London and New York: Granta Publications
2005 A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., E. Kessler & N. Wenborn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2004 A Reader of Liberal Judaism: Israel Abrahams, Claude Montefiore, Israel Mattuck and Lily Montagu, London: Vallentine Mitchell
2004 Aspects of Liberal Judaism: Essays in Honour of John D Rayner on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, eds., E. Kessler and D.J. Goldberg, London: Vallentine Mitchell
2004 Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Sacrifice of Isaac, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2004 Themes in Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., E. Kessler & M.J. Wright, Cambridge: Orchard Academic
2002 Jews and Christians in Conversation: Crossing Cultures and Generations, eds., E. Kessler, J.T. Pawlikowski & J. Banki, Cambridge: Orchard Academic
1989 An English Jew: The Life and Writings of Claude Montefiore, London: Vallentine Mitchell (2nd Edition, 2002)
Selection of recent articles
2016 “A Muslim and Jewish Perspective on Dialogue between Islam and Judaism” (with Akbar Ahmed), Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Routledge, Edited by J Meri (forthcoming)
2015 “Reading the Bible after Auschwitz”, Crucible: The Journal of Christian Social Ethics [Special edition: The Holocaust 70 Years On: Jewish and Christian Reflections], pp 34-45.
2013 “Judaism and the Religious Other”, Understanding Interreligious Relations, eds., David Cheetham, Douglas Pratt, and David Thomas, OUP, pp 64-87
2013 “‘I am Joseph your brother’: A Jewish Perspective on Christian-Jewish Relations since Nostra Aetate No. 4” Theological Studies 74, No 1, pp 48-72. [Reprinted: 2015 50 Years On: Probing the Riches of Vatican II, ed., David G. Schultenover, Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, pp 207-233.]
2013 “Muslims and Jews in the West Today: Minority Transformations” Welcome to the Cavalcade: A Festschrift in Honour of Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet, pp 276-285.
2013 ”Social Media and the Movement of Ideas” European Judaism 46, No 1, pp 25-36.
2012 “A Jewish response to Gavin D’Costa” Theological Studies: 73, No 3, pp 614-629.
2011 “Rethinking the Christian-Jewish Relationship: Some Reflections from a Jewish Theologian” Pastoral Review 7:4, pp 16-23.
2011 “Jewish-Muslim Dialogue in Light of Jewish-Christian Relations”, Theology Vol 114, No 1, pp 23-31.
2011 “Mary the Jewish Mother”, Irish Theological Quarterly Vol 76, pp 211-223. [Re-printed, Russian translation: 2014 in The Journal of St Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute 18:2, pp 235-249.]
2010 “Jewish Religious Tradition”, A Guide to Religious Thought and Practices, ed., Santanu K. Patro, London: SPCK, pp 90-116.
2010 “Changing Landscapes: Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations Today”, Melilah, Vol 3, pp 1-23.
2010 “Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations in light of the Saudi Initiative for Dialogue”, Interfaith Dialogue: Cross-cultural Views ed., Mohammed Al Bashir, Riyadh: Ghainaa Publications, pp 74-85.
2008 “Jewish Diaspora and the Spreading of Christianity”, Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, ed., A. Ehrlich, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, Vol 3, pp 126-131.
2006 “Judaism”, Blackwell Companion to The Bible and Culture, ed., John F. A. Sawyer, Oxford: Blackwell, pp 119-134.
2005 “Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Binding of Isaac”, Two Faiths, One Covenant? Jewish and Christian Identity in the Presence of the Other, eds., E.B. Korn and J.T. Pawlikowski, Lanham, MD: Sheed and Ward, pp 11-28.
2004 “Jewish Scholarly Studies of Jesus”, “Jesus from a Jewish Perspective”, articles in Jesus in History, Culture and Thought: An Encyclopedia, ed., L. Houlden, Oxford: ABC-Clio, pp 479-87.
2004 “A Jewish Approach to Dialogue with Christians and Muslims”, Priests and People, Vol 18:1, pp 13-18.
2004 “Perceptions of the Other – Lessons from Jewish-Christian Dialogue”, Racism and Human Rights, ed., R. Walden, Leiden: Martinus Nijhof, pp 85-100.
2003 “Jews, Christians and the New Antisemitism”, The New Antisemitism?, eds., P. Ignawski and B. Kosmin, London: Profile Books/Institute for Jewish Policy Research, pp 213-222.
2003 “The Jewish People and its Holy Scripture in the Christian Bible”, Scripture Bulletin, Vol 33:1, pp 29-45.
2003 “Jewish Scholarly Studies of Jesus”, “Jesus from a Jewish Perspective”, articles in Jesus in History, Culture and Thought: An Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, ed., L. Holden.
Major Public Lectures
2015 650th anniversary lecture and 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate: A Jewish Response to Nostra Aetate 50 years on: Reflections of a European Jewish Theologian (University of Vienna)
2014 Religion and International Relations: Towards a Post-interfaith Society (Brookings Institute, Washington, D.C.)
2013 The Abrahamic Religions: The Prospects for Their Inter-relations (University of Edinburgh)
2012 Changing Landscapes: Jews, Christians and Muslims in the UK Today (University of Derby)
2011 The Bible and Other Faiths (Ely Cathedral Kings James Bible Lectures)
2010 Faith and the City Lecture (University of Bradford)
2008 The Kennedy Lecture (Charlotte, North Carolina)
2005 The Bishop Grossteste Lecture (Lincoln Cathedral)
2004 The Martin Buber Lecture (University of East Anglia, Norwich)
2003 The Shapiro Lecture (Chicago)
2000 30th Cardinal Bea Memorial Lecture (London)
1998 1st Hugo Gryn Memorial Lecture (London)
This list reveals that Dr Edward Kessler is, indeed, Jewish.
And so, we have this organisation created by a Jew in honour of another highly public Jewish figure, producing a report that finds Christianity is declining in Britain, and Britain is becoming more “multicultural”.
Is there anything to this thread I’m following? It could all be coincidence, but when you’ve read Henry Ford’s book from 1920-2 and you’ve been joining the dots for a while, and we have this now infamous quote from Barbara Lerner Spectre about the Jewish influence on multiculturalism, it’s worth considering that this is one more thread in a multi-faceted, carefully disguised agenda that is transforming the world as we know it. Or it could be just chance that a Jewish created organisation is producing such a report. I haven’t looked into who has provided the funding for all of this, but money is no object for these projects.
And did the RT report look at any of this? Of course not.
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