Chief Rabbi Lord Sachs, good morning, John.

Morning.

Among my first memories I was four at the time was of Her Majesty becoming the Queen.

My father went out to buy a television, a huge piece of furniture, with a tiny screen,

so that we could watch the coronation.

In my first days at school, we were taught the National Anthem.

And I can remember thinking that the words longed to rain over us were about the weather, which was why England was so wet. She rained, I thought, exceptionally well, and so she has in the true sense for 60 years. Jews are intensely loyal to the Queen. Every week in synagogue we say a prayer for her and her

family. Each time we see her in person, we say a special blessing, and tomorrow we'll be saying a special

prayer for the Diamond Jubilee. Two thousand years ago, the rabbi said, pray for the welfare of the monarch,

for were it not for respect for him or her,

people would eat one another alive.

Strong words.

But one's Jews and others feel in their very bones.

My late father came here from Poland.

My mother's family came from Lithuania.

Had Britain not let them in, they would have died in the

Holocaust and I would never have been born. For us, Britain's tolerance and traditions of fairness

aren't something we take for granted. They are the very things that allow us to live without fear,

and they are embodied, personified, in Her Majesty the Queen. For most of us,

she's the human face of national identity, the unifying presence at the heart of British life,

to whom we feel loyalty, whichever way we vote, and regardless of class, color, culture or creed. It was intensely moving,

on Tuesday of this week in the House of Lords to hear Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu,

...