IT’S Hanukah, the Jewish festival of lights and enlightenment. At this time, we commemorate the Maccabean Revolt — a guerilla struggle by ordinary Jews for their right to self-determination against pressure to assimilate from Greek imperial authorities and the Hellenised priests of their own community. 

Of course this story is interpreted in many ways, and people from the whole range of Jewish views, conservative and liberal, reformist and revolutionary, nationalist and internationalist, like the rabbis arguing in ancient times, all assert that it validates their conflicting perspectives.

For radical Jews, this diversity and discussion, the argument and teasing out of ideas, is our precious heritage. 

But it’s a heritage we’re having to fight increasingly hard for as forces within and beyond our own community attempt to police the boundaries of our debate and limit our ways of expressing ourselves culturally, politically and socially. 

The pressure on us to be silent about radical Jewish politics, which is particularly draconian in the Labour Party, has prompted an upbeat response from Red Labour. 

This group “promotes socialism and advocates a socialist orientation in the Labour Party. Unapologetically,” and tomorrow evening, Tuesday December 15, they are unapologetically hosting A Celebration of Jewish Radicalism. 

I will be chairing this event, and the aim is educational, particularly for non-Jews, who are often stunned into silence by the virulence of the attacks on those who overstep the line around a shrinking space to debate issues such as anti-semitism, Israel/Palestine or who is entitled to represent Jewish perspectives.

Red Labour say: “We are delighted to be hosting this event and hope that, by bringing a diverse range of voices together, it will not only be a celebration of Jewish radicalism but an educational and informative event as well. 

“As many have said before: there is not just one Jewish community but multiple communities, with a variety of stories and degrees of wisdom and insight. We hope there will be more events like this in the future.” 

There is much to celebrate, and venerable traditions to draw on. Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC member of the South African parliament, honours those Jews who risked everything in the fight for equality and justice there. 

He says: “Alongside Mandela and black South Africans in the struggle against apartheid, stood an extraordinary group of Jewish radicals, including Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Denis Goldberg and a number of others. 

“Committed socialists, internationalists and anti-racists, they believed that the struggle against racism and for democracy in South Africa reflected struggles against fascism and oppression across the world, including the struggle of the Palestinians.”

The speakers come from a range of backgrounds and comprise a wonderful and varied body of talent and knowledge. 

They will not allow their radical ideas to be obscured by a singular “authorised version” of Jewish history. 

Instead, this celebration will showcase the diversity of the past, the present and hopes for the future of radical Jewish life. 

David Rosenberg says: “The crackdown on democracy within the Labour Party is frustrating, but as a Jewish Labour Party member and a member of the Jewish Socialists’ Group, I’ve long become used to attempts to stifle and marginalise certain opinions in the Jewish community. 

“In both cases they will fail and we will find outlets. You can’t keep good ideas down.”

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, vice-chair of Chingford and Wood Green Labour Party, has been directly affected by just such an attempt. 

She is one of many left-wing Jewish members who have been suspended from the party “pending an investigation,” and there has been a huge groundswell of support for her. 

She says: “At a time when Jewish opinion is widely portrayed as aligned with an increasingly authoritarian, pro-Israel Establishment, this is an opportunity to hear from Jews who dissent, who are true to Jewish values of care for others — Jews who therefore stand in solidarity with Palestinians and with those on the left who refuse to be silenced.”

There’s a short Yiddish saying which for many Jewish people sums up the Jewish condition: Es iz shver tsu zayn a yid — it’s hard to be a Jew. It is, and it isn’t. 

We can tell our story as a tale of continuous oppression and persecution. Or we can draw on our history as evidence that a people can live for thousands of years as a minority, sometimes with great difficulty, but for the most part in a fruitful relationship with other minorities and nations. 

Leon Rosselson, the remarkable singer-songwriter who has captured the lives and struggles of several generations, will be interviewed at the celebration after a screening of him performing. 

He sums it up in this verse from his song, My Father’s Jewish World: Now it’s my father’s face that meets me in the mirror/ And I wonder what to me his Jewish legacy has been. /The state of always being an outsider/ Of asking why then asking why again./ That precious strand of Jewishness that challenges authority/ And dares to stand against the powers that be.

A Celebration of Jewish Radicalism is hosted by Red Labour, with Alexei Sayle, Rivkah Brown, Leon Rosselson, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, David Rosenberg, Andrew Feinstein and Barnaby Raine — with live music.

You can register for the event at mstar.link/JewishRadicals or watch the livestream on Facebook.