'Let’s get to our local high streets and show them active support'

As we move more online if we are able to, face to face business will continue to become more challenging for those working in that sector. Just go to any local high street and observe the shuttered outlets and the quick turnover of shop fronts.

What gives us a sense of continuity and anchoring in a changing world is seeing that same shop we often visit, or even walk past, taking its place in the local visual landscape. Covid has threatened that landscape. Covid has threatened the local.

Rabbi David Mason questions our ability to show more compassion and tolerance (Image: Muswell Hill Synagogue)

And so we have a responsibility in 2022 to #supportlocal and #shoplocal. Not only does this get us out of our homes, but it also is a way of sharing our income around and not only apportioning it to the world of online, which has benefited so much from our custom through the pandemic.

In fact this is part of consideration of our responsibility to society. Not just a showing of sympathy to those in need, but an act of support. Many commentators were worried early in the pandemic that clapping the NHS was simply an act of sympathy, but not a voice of wanting the conditions of those working there to be much better.

So with our local businesses. We will read newspaper articles and see TV news reports on how the high street is struggling. So now, in 2022, if we are able to, let’s get to our local high streets and show them active support. Whether it is veg, books, pharmaceuticals or eating and drinking somewhere, let’s go local.

David Mason is rabbi of Muswell Hill Synagogue and chair of Haringey Multi-Faith Network.