Sunday, August 25, 2013

Lord Sacks on Optimism

Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is retiring after twenty years in the job. In his mid sixties some would say he was young to quit. He will be much missed. After a shaky start he became hugely respected in his symbolic role as spokesperson for Britain's entire Jewish community (in addition to his official role as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations).

He has been speaking this morning on the Sunday program on BBC Radio 4. At one point he was talking about the Middle East Peace Process, in which context he said: "I have long laboured to make a distinction between optimism and hope. Optimism is the belief that things are going to get better. Hope is the belief that if we work hard enough together we can make things better. It needs no courage, only a certain naïveté  to be an optimist. It needs a great deal of courage to hope . . . When it comes to peace between Israel and its neighbours, we will never lose hope.

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