On Shabbat the Jewish community kept the fast of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). This fast of collective atonement lasts for 25 hours.

In the local community the fast lasted from 6.31 pm on Friday (the start of Shabbat) until 7.36 pm on Saturday night. The fast ends with the blowing of the shofar, the ram's horn.

The fast of Yom Kippur is famous for the story of Jonah, the fish and repentance. It also introduces the concept of the scapegoat.

Throughout history Jews have been the world's scapegoats, and we see an increase of this phenomenon in our present time.

One of the most moving parts of the service is the prayer Unetane Tokef. According to Jewish tradition, during the Middle Ages Rabbi Amnon of Mainz (one of the earliest Germany Jewish communities, stemming from Roman times) used to have friendly chats with the local Bishop, and often acted as his advisor.

One day though the Bishop ordered Rabbi Amnon to convert to Christiantiy. Rabbi Amnon was shocked and asked for three days grace to consider. Rabbi Amnon did not return to the Bishop and prayed to be forgiven for considering conversion from Judaism.

The Bishop had Rabbi Amnon arrested and brought before him. He demanded an answer. Rabbi Amnon replied that he should have his tongue cut out for the sin of saying he would consider the matter.

Furious, the Bishop said that his sin was not in what he said, but in his legs for not coming as he had promised. He ordered that Rabbi Amnon's hands and feet be chopped off, joint by joint. After each amputation, Rabbi Amnon was asked if he would convert, and each time he refused. Then the Bishop ordered that Rabbi Amnon be carried home, a maimed and mutilated cripple, together with the amputated parts.

When Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) arrived a few days later, Rabbi Amnon was carried to the Ark, recited the prayer, Unetaneh Tokef, and died on the altar.

The prayer is a defiant hymn to the one, true G-d, an assertion of Jewish teaching against those who wish to acquire converts by force.

The prayer is also recited on Yom Kippur.

But what does this prayer mean for us today? Surely the story is simply an example of the barbarism meted out by the Church towards the Jews about 1000 years ago and has no contemporary relevance?

When we look into the symbolism of having a voice without hands or feet, however, the image of control by others comes to mind.

Having a voice without being able to act makes people seem stupid and shrill, hysterical and incoherent.

These are all terms used, for instance, of the Jews during the Holocaust by the Churches and western governments, including the USA.

Rowan Williams has recently stated that throughout history whenever things went wrong for others, the Jews would be targeted as the scapegoats.

In a striking image, he states that Jews have always been the '[a]dults among spoiled and feral children.... The rules of the social and religious game are fixed to make the Jew invariably the loser in the long term'.

The so-called 'enlightenment' governments were just as bad, Dr Williams added. What Jews are suffering from now is the joint outcome of 'Christian bigotry' and 'enlightened contempt'. These are both 'tightly woven together in the European psyche', and the disastrous outcome is the attempted complete extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.

For Jews, more than for other religions and spiritual systems, there is no choice. Jewish self-definition is not an option: it is a given. Jews have a specific role as a people chosen by G-d for service to Him and to humanity, so cannot simply go along with the whims of society, including the whims of contemporary churches.

However, unlike some other religions, this special position, ordained by G-d, also entails obeying the law of their country of residence.

The idea that Jewish particularity is not negotiable is almost impossible for Christians and Muslims to understand (not to mention those who advocate secularism).

Conversionary religions really do believe that people are open to new doctrines, insisting for instance that their own chosen gods or prophets are superior, or have come to replace the Jewish G-d which, let's face it, is unknowable, being a verb.

And whenever zealotry is in play, violence follows fast on its heels. If anything, Judaism is a system which safeguards against the idolatry of thinking that we ourselves our gods, knowing it all. Judaism is not an easy way of life, but it does question the idea of unchequered progress, plus the violence which often goes with it.

As Dr Williams expressed it in a recent letter to me regarding contemporary Church language used in sermons and broadcasts commenting on Muslim massacres which have left thousands dead, but which have instead resorted to stereotypical attacks on Jews:

'The reason and the way [Jews] have suffered is so unique and so uniformly dreadful. Jesus warns his followers in John's gospel that those who kill Christians will think they are doing a good work; the awful irony is that his followers have thought they were doing a good work in persecuting and slaughtering Jews.'

So whenever, a Church leader, politician, university spokesperson, or union leader thinks that Jews are an easy target to explain away the many problems of life, they are symbolically repeating the actions of the mediaeval Bishop of Mainz.

By speaking and acting in the way that they do they are reminding the Jewish people that they remain the scapegoat for the world, and that the prayer of oneness uttered on Yom Kippur is just as necessary today as it always was.

The world, it seems, still practises barbarity towards Jews: only the means are more subtle. But there is a solution: if Church leaders, politicians, university spokespeople and union leaders actually thought before they spoke, or reconsidered the outcomes for the world if their deepest wishes actually came to pass, then we would be one tiny step nearer to the days of the Messiah, when the fast of Yom Kippur would no longer be needed.

For the Day of Atonement is not simply a day of repentance for Jews, but a day when the Jews take on the burden of the whole world and atone for the collective sins of mankind.

Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.