Jonathan Sacks

Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London, (born 8 March 1948) has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, since 1991.

In September 2008 Sacks was ranked as number 30 in the Telegraph's Top 100 right wingers. Iain Dale, the author of the list, wrote that: 'Jonathan Sacks is one of the few genuinely spiritual leaders to have an influence on modern day politics- especially thinking on the right - and is the only religious representative in this list.'

Multiculturalism

In 2007 Sacks emerged as a prominent critic of multiculturalism. Sacks begins his 2007 book, The Home We Build Together, with the words ‘Multiculturalism has run its course, and it is time to move on,’ arguing that multiculturalism ‘has not led to integration but to segregation’ and has made societies ‘more abrasive, fractured and intolerant than they once were.’ An extract of the book was published in The Times in October 2007 (available online here) under the headline: ‘Wanted: a national culture – Multiculturalism is a disaster’. In December 2007 the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange hosted a panel discussion on the book also featuring the Editor of Prospect magazine David Goodhart and Ziauddin Sardar, a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

In an interview with The Philosophers' Magazine, Sacks explained that the book's main metaphor, that of society as a country house rather than a hotel (citizens being guests), was first floated in a speech at the think-tank Demos:

To my amazement, because I attached no great significance to it, I was getting back stuff from cabinet members. I don’t know how they got hold of it. I think a transcript was made and Demos sent it around, and all of a sudden they were talking about it and I saw that I had solved a problem for them. Now if you’ve solved a problem, at least set it out, as I tried to set it out. I never believe I am right on anything, but I do believe I have a responsibility to make the case and if one starts a debate then that’s my highest aspiration. That’s why I wrote that book, because of that metaphor thing which seemed to help people, because we’re all facing the problem of how do you move on without moving back?

In The Home We Build Together Sacks argues that the political movements of the 1960s led to a collapse in moral consensus, a decline in traditional class identity and most importantly a shift towards a culture and philosophy of individualism. This he argues ultimately gave rise to a decline in ‘civility’ and an increase in political violence as activists stressed the role of power rather than reason in politics:

[A] series of events that began in the 1960s fundamentally changed the terms of society and moral debate. Until recently, serious thinkers argued that society depends on moral consensus. Without that, there is no such thing as society, merely the clamour of competing voices and the clash of conflicting wills. This view began to crumble with the rise of autonomy, existential choice, or the will to power. If morality is private, there is no logic in imposing it on society by legislation.

[…]

So moral consensus disappears and moral conversation dies. Opponents are demonized. Ever-new ‘isms’ are invented to exclude ever more opinions. New forms of intimidation begin to appear: protests, threats of violence, sometimes actual violence. For when there are no shared standards, there can be no conversation, and where conversation ends, violence begins.’

Sacks goes on to describe what he calls ‘a fundamental shift from classical liberalism to neo-Marxism spliced with postmodernism’. This he argues has led to a focus on oppressed groups rather than individual rights and, drawing on the writings of the American political scientist Michael Walzer, a rise in identity politics and what he calls ‘the politics of competitive victimhood’. He also refers to 'political correctness' as representing a move 'from thoughtfulness to thought-control' and cites, amongst other works, two publications by the think-tank Civitas, one by Anthony Browne and another by David Green.

Ultimately Sacks argues for a defence of ‘liberal democracy’ through the promotion of marriage, the protection of civil society institutions (especially from ‘campaigns to boycott this, ban that, protest something else’) and events such as a ‘Britain Day’ or ‘citizenship ceremonies’ to ‘celebrate our shared belonging’.

Influences and Influence

Sacks was influenced by Roger Scruton whilst studying philosophy at Cambridge University. He went on to teach at Middlesex Polytechnic where David Conway of Civitas was a member of the faculty. Conway who would later have Sacks as his Rabbi.

Sacks's philosophy has been influenced by American communitarians like Alistair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer and Charles Taylor, all of whom he met in the 1990s. He also became friends with the influential liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin.