Multiculturalism Has Had Its Day . . . Marriage needs to be encouraged - Rabbi Sacks

The outgoing Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Jonathan Sacks, says British Muslims should learn from the U.K. Jewish community's centuries of experience as a minority and abstain from imposing beliefs on the majority population.

Following are excerpts from a London Times interview in which the Jewish leader’s criticism of the British government is especially strong in light of the upcoming BREXIT vote. 


In the interview Sacks also said: "the government has [not] done enough at all" to encourage marriage, adding it should recognize marriage in the tax system, and also help stay-at-home mothers with childcare subsidies. “The state has an interest in marriage because the cost of family breakdown and non-marriage, the last time I looked at it, was estimated at £9 billion a year,” he said.

On multiculturalism in Britain he said "has had its day and it’s time to move on." 

Rabbi Sacks with former  C of E archbishop, Rowan Williams

“The real danger in a multicultural society is that every ethnic group and religious group becomes a pressure group, putting our people’s interest instead of the national interest,” he said. 

Rabbi Sacks  advised Muslims in Britain to learn from the Jewish experience of living as a minority in the country, saying that, "the lessons are — number one, you don’t try to impose your views on the majority population. Number two, you have to be what I call bilingual, you know you are Jewish and you’re English… because it forces you to realize that actually society and life is complicated. It mustn’t and can’t be simplified. Number three, there are times when it’s uncomfortable, when you realize there is such a thing as anti-Semitism. [Being] a minority isn’t always fun.”