Sir, - The current process of consideration for the removal of the name Herzog by Dublin City Council from Herzog Park in Dublin’s Rathgar, opposite the country’s only Jewish school, marks a decisive and sinister escalation against the Jewish community in Ireland.
Named after Chaim Herzog, Israel’s 6th president who was raised in Dublin and whose father was the chief rabbi of Ireland, Herzog Park is one of the very few locations in the country named in recognition of the contribution by Jews to the Irish State, citizens who are simultaneously Irish and Jewish, whose rights are identical, constitutionally to all other Irish citizens.
The proposed removal of the name Herzog is an unalloyed broadside by a body of the Irish establishment against the Jewish community in Ireland, dictating which Irish Jews are acceptable to the contemporary Irish polity and people.
Removing a Jewish name has a deeply sinister historical resonance. The message to Jews is clear: we wish to erase you and your history. What’s next? Will we be banned from using the park or just from sitting on its benches?
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This motion brought before Dublin City Council represents nothing more than performative protest, the antithesis of what is needed today in Ireland: consultation, dialogue and empathy. This kind of reckless discrimination pushes a wedge even further between the Jewish community and wider society. No good outcomes will arise from this dangerous thinking. - Yours, etc,
OLIVER SEARS
Founder
Holocaust Awareness Ireland
Dublin 2
