A GOVERNMENT-BACKED report was published this week on the rise of anti-Semitism in British society. The authors were Lord Mann and Dame Penny Mordaunt, neither of whom is Jewish. They claimed, The Daily Telegraph reported, that anti-Semitism had become “normalised in middle-class Britain”, and that it was especially present in the NHS, academia, and the arts.
This is a shocking claim. Growing up in north London, I was aware of anti-Semitism: of sports clubs with a “Sorry, no Jews” policy, and even schools, like my own, that operated a tight quota of places to offer Jewish girls. It was hardly surprising that most of my Jewish contemporaries were academically outstanding, highly articulate, and capable. Later, I worked with highly gifted Jews in the BBC. Most were not religious, but what united them was a sense loyalty to Israel. With the Holocaust still in living memory, Israel was the one place on earth where, if the worst came to the worst, Jews could feel secure. The Six-Day War of 1967 was a terrifying experience for my Jewish schoolfriends.
British Jews have made enormous contributions to society. Jewish Labour provided many distinguished Parliamentarians. Jews chose careers in academia, medicine, business, and law. Many were artistically and musically gifted. I think of the steady and sane wisdom of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs and of Rabbi Lionel Blue’s warmth and humour on Thought for the Day.
Yet the recent report suggests that the tide has turned against British Jews. As recently as 2018, Jeremy Corbyn was ridiculed for his support for a piece of obviously anti-Semitic graffiti showing stereotypical big-nosed Jews gloating over money. In 2022, Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein resigned from Thought, appalled by what he saw as rising anti-Semitism in the media.
The authors of the report speak of anti-Semitism as being rife in university settings and even in primary schools, of the police treating Jewish protesters differently from Muslims, and of pro-Palestinian groups putting pressure on media organisations to ban Jewish comedians and artists.
It disturbs me that so many of my Christian friends have chosen to adopt an uncritical pro-Palestinian stance, seemingly heedless of the fact that Palestine Action has recently been proscribed as a terrorist organisation. They seem to have little knowledge or understanding of the history of anti-Semitism, or of Christian complicity in it.
None of this should prevent due criticism of the current Israeli government, or the excessive targeting of innocent civilians in Gaza. But we are naïve if we fail to recognise that Palestinian Action and its supporters are infected by a hatred of Jews that is more toxic than at any time within living memory. They should consider what “From the River to the Sea” actually implies, not only for the Jewish State, but for Jewish people everywhere.
