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Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
UK News

Rowan Williams "slams growing university anti-semitism"

The former-Archbishop has written to a student victim of anti-semitism at the University of York and implicated a number of the country's top universities, the Sunday Times has said.

According to the newspaper, Lord Williams disclosed he had written to the universities minister, Jo Johnson, urging the government to intervene.

Currently master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge, he has apparently criticised the official response so far to rising levels of anti-semitism as "muted".

Writing to Jewish law student Zachery Confino, Lord Williams is quoted in the Sunday Times as saying: "It's ironic that just as we are waking up to all sorts of ways in which 'hate speech' works we should lose sight of one of the most ancient and poisonous forms of it, in the shape of anti-semitic rhetoric.

"Anyone concerned (as I am) about Islamophobia here and elsewhere needs to be scrupulously alert to the risk of scapegoating and demonising other religious communities, especially Jews: and anyone with even the least bit of historical sense ought to hear the echoes of past bigotry and violence towards Jewish people in Europe."

Zachery Confino, who is president of the University of York's Union of Jewish Students, reportedly received annonymous anti-semitic comments on social media including: "Hitler was on to something."

The University of York has an Equality and Diversity Office and part of it's remit is "to develop awareness of equality and diversity through publicity, training, development and networks".

A statement on the university's website said: "The University celebrates and values the diversity brought by its individual members and is committed to the creation of a positive environment which is fair, welcoming and inclusive where all staff and students can fulfil their potential.

"The University aims to meet the needs of its diverse student and staff population through consultation and engagement."

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