Archbishop Justin Welby says Jews are a “gift” to their countries and antisemitism is the “taproot of all racism”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that Jews are a “gift” to the countries in which they live and that antisemitism is the “taproot of all racism.”

At an event this week at the Bevis Marks synagogue in London this week, Justin Welby said that “There is no question that a country with a large Jewish community will be a better country. It will flourish in almost any area you care to name.” He challenged antisemites, asking why Jewish communities were “seen as a problem, not as a gift.”

In conversation with the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, Archbishop Welby described antisemitism as the “taproot of all racism.”

Referring to his study of churches in Germany under Nazi rule, he observed: “You saw there that the moment you don’t push back against antisemitism, it becomes so engrained – and antisemitic laws or antisemitic attitudes become permissible, and everything becomes permissible. It’s a cancer of extraordinarily rapid growth, which you can’t deal with if you leave it for any time.”

Reflecting on his childhood, Welby recalled that after he had been sent to boarding school at the age of eight, he had become friendly with a Jewish boy called Myers. “My father heard about this. He said, ‘Don’t play with him. He’s Jewish.’ I still remember, I must have been nine, thinking, ‘I am not going to obey that. He is my friend. So what if he is Jewish? I couldn’t care less.’ And we continued to play together. I just didn’t talk about it at home. From then on, I thought this was ridiculous. How can anyone live thinking that because someone comes from a particular group, that they are intrinsically bad or lesser or other?”

He later discovered that his father was Jewish, while his mother was secretary to the Nobel Prize-winning Jewish scientist Sir Ernst Chain.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Under Archbishop Welby, the Church of England has made huge strides in confronting its past and in its relations with the Jewish community. One only needs to contrast his recent comments with the policies of the Church in past centuries to be grateful for the era in which we live. There is still more to do, but Archbishop Welby has made a real commitment to strengthening interfaith ties, and we commend him.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism works to raise awareness of antisemitism among all faith and minority communities.