I’ve been reflecting on why tomorrow’s EHRC report has assumed such importance to many in the Jewish community.

Why, given Jews *know* they were right to sound the alarm on anti-Semitism, do they care so much about this?

I think there are 10 reasons.

1. Because there are still too many who doubt the problem, or the extent of it.

2. Because an independent report doesn’t allow a comeback relating to motives: “it’s a political attack” or “you’re all Tories anyway”.

3. Because Jews have been gaslit. When you’ve been repeatedly told you’re inventing or exaggerating or confabulating, after a while you crave independent verification that you’re not going mad.

4. Because a report by the EHRC carries weight - more weight than Jews alone could muster.

5. Because - rightly or wrongly - many Jews perceive that anti-Semitism is taken most seriously when it is raised and pursued by non-Jews.

6. Because the anti-Semitism problem is not yet dealt with, and the leadership may need a spur to issue a decisive blow.

7. Because it marks this whole sorry affair in the public record. It will stand as a historical document.

8. Because Jews have been dealing with it on a rolling piecemeal basis, day by day, incident by incident. To see it collated and synthesised in one place will offer a sobering but satisfying sense of perspective.

9. Because the EHRC has a higher kind of moral authority than party politics. Bad apple MPs may take comfort from the fact they are still MPs - vindication even. This should tarnish that sense of vindication.

10. Because Jews want some kind of closure. This won’t mark the end, of course, but it should mark the end of an era - and the beginning of a new one.

Of course, the irony here is that if the Report does not reach the conclusions that many Jews hope for - and many of those hopes are, I think, no more than fantasies - then each of these reasons can lead to disappointment as well as satisfaction.

I’ve not seen the report. People probably shouldn’t pin all their hopes on it. But I hope it takes things further one way or the other.

Now I wish I had begun this thread “why is this night different from all other nights?”