Lord Wolfson, Mr President, Immanuel JakobovitsChief Rabbi, Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The Friends of the Hebrew University
Thank you for your very kind words. And may I join you in formally welcoming to Britain the many Friends of the Hebrew University, who have come to this meeting [end p1] from all corners of the world. We are delighted that you have come here to show your support for this remarkable institution of learning and we wish you a very happy and successful visit.
Like one or two other institutions round here—not just me—the Hebrew University has been going for a very long time, and the Friends of the Hebrew University for [end p2] almost as long.
We are particularly proud that the British Friends are among the most venerable, having been founded in 1926, only a year after the University itself.
One of the great characteristics of Jewish communities everywhere is the way in which they band together to support their [end p3] cherished institutions, and give to them with unbounded generosity.
I am glad that their example is increasingly being followed, and in Britain, too, we are seeing ever more personal giving—over £1500 million last year to boost charities, rebuild churches, help medical research and feed the hungry. [end p4]
In this, as in so many other fields, Jewish people have set an example for the rest of us to follow—and I am sure all of you here will once again give evidence of your generosity towards the Hebrew University as a result of this conference.
Indeed, I think the sum which you, Mr Chairman, announced earlier this evening had been raised for the Inter-departmental [end p5] Scientific Equipment Centre, which you have been kind enough to call the Margaret Thatcher Centre, is absolutely magnificent.
And may I also say a special word of thanks for the great generosity of Mrs. Sherman for endowing the Archie and Marjorie Sherman Chair of Chemistry. [end p6]
Britain and the Hebrew University
I am not sure if everyone knows how strong the links between Britain and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are: —the land on which the University was originally built on Mount Scopus belonged to an Englishman, Sir John Dill; [end p7] —the University's corner-stone was laid by Chaim Weizmann in 1918 while Jerusalem was under General Allenby 's protection; —and the opening ceremony in 1925 was attended by Sir Herbert Samuel and by Lord Balfour. In a few days time we shall of course celebrate the 61st anniversary of that historic event, the Balfour Declaration. [end p8] And our thoughts will be very much with Israel as it approaches elections which will be so crucial to its future. We pray that the most famous land in history may some day find peace.
My own association with the University and its Friends goes back to 1963, not very long after I became a Member of Parliament. I have visited the campus on three [end p9] occasions, most recently during my visit to Israel in 1986, a visit which always bring back the happiest memories of the warmest reception which I have ever received anywhere.
The Contribution of the Hebrew University
It is impossible to overstate the contribution which the Hebrew University has made to [end p10] Israel and its people—and indeed much more widely still.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, student certificates from the Hebrew University allowed young Jewish students to come to Palestine from Europe and escape the Holocaust.
The University has produced many of Israel's [end p11] foremost politicians and lawyers.
The School of Archaeology has uncovered remarkable Roman mosaics in Galilee. The Institute of Agriculture has had a leading part in developing Israel's advanced agricultural techniques. And, after the Chernobyl disaster, the Department of Physics developed some of the most sophisticated equipment in the [end p12] world for detecting minute quantities of surface radiation.
But the University has not been satisfied just with cultivating intellectual and academic excellence. It has always wanted to contribute more directly to Israel's national life. It is in that spirit that the University runs adult education courses for Israel's [end p13] Arab population and law students are encouraged to undertake voluntary legal aid work.
Mr Chairman, when the University was opened in 1925 a prediction was made by that outstanding man of genius, Albert Einstein. He said then: “In the course of time this institution will demonstrate with the greatest clarity the achievements [end p14] of which the Jewish spirit is capable” . His prophecy has been fulfilled—and many times over.
Gratitude for Honorary Doctorate
All of this makes me particularly proud and that you have awarded me an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University—and I am most grateful to you, Mr President, [end p15] and to you, Mr Rector, for doing me that honour. Nothing could give me greater pleasure, bringing together as it does two things which have a very special place in my life—Israel and the law.
Tribute to the Jewish People
Israel because of a very long connection—to [end p16] which you kindly referred, Mr Chairman—with Jewish people, and a deep and abiding admiration for them.
As Immanuel Jakobovitsthe Chief Rabbi reminded us in a remarkable lecture some years ago, ‘the ideals of compassion, equality, freedom and brotherhood have their origins in the moral pioneering of ancient Israel, its faith, its prophets, its persistence!’ [end p17]
Indeed it is a remarkable fact that no religion other than that of the Bible has been able to generate the flowering of individuality, the concept of human rights, the tradition of unfettered thought, the rule of law and the idea of progress.
All these are part of the Jewish people's contribution to our civilization. [end p18] But I also admire the Jewish approach to life.
It's not just the high achievement, the generosity, the sense of community and of helping each other—although all those things are very important. It is the recognition that—as the philosopher Thomas Huxley said—the great end in life is not knowledge but action: [end p19] the belief that you must always press forward to change and improve.
That restlessness, that determination always to strive, to build and to create has made Israel the remarkable country we know.
You have your dreams, indeed you are often described as a nation of idealists. [end p20] But instead of just sitting back and contemplating those dreams, you have been determined to realise them and put them into practice.
You settled, you pioneered, you created fertile land out of the desert, you gave to the community as well as drew from it.
These are the qualities which I so much admire [end p21] and respect in Jewish people, and which I believe we are now beginning to recreate in this country.
More and more of our people are taking the the opportunities, welcoming responsibility, showing initiative and enterprise—demonstrating that the basic spirit of the British people was not dead but only needed the right stimulus, the [end p22] right encouragement, the right Government to release it once more.
Respect for the Rule of Law
But a belief in the worth of individuals is not the only thing we have absorbed from the Jewish tradition. We have also inherited your deep belief in the rule of law—so eloquently expressed [end p23] by President Herzog in a remarkable speech here in London nearly three years ago.
The rule of law is absolutely fundamental to everything we believe in: to property, to the rights of the individual, to democracy itself. Because it is freedom under the law—a law which doesn't attempt to tell us what to do, only what we should not do if [end p24] others are also to enjoy their freedom—which makes Britain and Israel the human, creative and vital societies which they are. And that freedom must extend to all members of society.
We can never take the rule of law for granted. As great American lawyer, Felix Frankfurter, reminded us: [end p25] “Limited as the law is, it is all that we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled feeling” .
That is why we welcome the changes which are taking place in the Soviet Union.
They hold out fresh hope for those who suffer discrimination and restrictions such as [end p26] Soviet Jews. The numbers allowed to emigrate are rising, and that is good news. But it will be even better news when all those who want to leave can do so freely: and those who want to stay can do so in the knowledge that the law will protect them and their right to practice their religion and their beliefs. [end p27]
Mr Chairman, we shall go on pressing for that on every possible occasion, whether it be in the follow-up to the Helsinki Accords or in all our individual contacts at meetings.
But it will only be when the rulers in the Communist countries accept that the law imposes restraints on their power, that people there will really begin to be free. [end p28]
Conclusion
Mr Chairman, I thank you for acknowledging with this doctorate what I have tried to achieve—and will go on trying to achieve so long as I remain in government. I thank you for the contribution which the Jewish community has made to this country and to the world. [end p29] I thank you for this great event this evening.
I thank all those here who have shown such generosity towards the Hebrew University—and I know that they will continue to do so.