Two Identities

“The Jews who came to Britain as refugees, among them my late father, became passionately British as well as Jewish. They saw no contradiction between the two; nor should we. In the secular state there is no incompatibility between religious and national identities. None the less, a sense of collective belonging does not happen without sustained and focused effort. I argued then, and believe still, that each of us has to learn to be ‘bilingual’, at home in two identities, one we share with fellow believers, the other we share with fellow citizens.”

The Persistence of Faith, p. viii