I'm a scared British Jew

[Elladisenchanted]

As I'm writing this, I've had another whats app messagw asking for prayers for a rabbi in London hospitalised, who has just been beaten up. I'm scared.

I'm getting messages from my synagogue and kids schools about walking in groups for safety. Neighborhood group posting pics of cars where I live smashed up. People driving by waving Palestinian flags and screaming anti semitic abuse and entering shops intimidating people. This is Manchester not London, where it's even worse.
I've been sent screenshots of Facebook posts with comments like rape Jewish women. Rape their mothers. Rape their daughters. Not rape the Israelis. Rape the Jews. British Jews.

I'm preparing for the shavuous festival and at 8.50 pm I'll be turning off my phone for just over two days and be cut off from social media and news. But I'm dreading what I'll see when I go back online on Tuesday night. I'm sending my husband to the synagogue with my heart in my mouth. This isn't the first time. It won't be the last.

I'm the last of my British family still here and as much as I love my country I don't know how much longer I want to stay here.

Not sure why I'm posting this. Just feeling despair that this never ends.

Again, @grumpyhoonmain, why do you think that this is appropriate for this thread? A thread @HebeMumsnet has just specified is for the support of scared British Jews?

@GrumpyHoonMain are you talking about the UK? If you are then you are talking about British jewish areas, this is ENTIRELY different to Israeli jewish and is the whole point of the thread, the fact that British jews are not israeli, they're British and it's vital not to combine the 2. If you're talking about hindu families in Israel that's a whole other question and not one for anyone here to answer.

@Hoppinggreen
No, FightingtheFoo is not wrong.
If you don’t understand why it is racist, that’s a problem. We have a problem when absolutely blatant racism is not recognised as such.

@GrumpyHoonMain

Start your own thread if you would like to discuss a different issue.

I agree that @GrumpyHoonMain should start her own thread. However I am really upset at her comments as my understanding is that the Jewish and Indian communities have really warm relationships. I would love, on another thread to hear more about this racism as if it’s a genuine problem if needs raising with Jewish community leaders to address it

Brilliant HebeMumsnet 👏🏻.

Such a shame though that so many needed that to be pointed out for them.

@GrumpyHoonMain

I think my post was clear what country I was talking about. Israeli Jewish racism against Indian people is horrendous.

Your post was completely UNCLEAR

No one is saying racism isn't horrendous (whoever the perpetrator is)

Why did you quote my post when it actually asked what you meant by saying it happens "more frequently"

As everyone has said what do you mean by Israeli Jewish??

@GrumpyHoonMain

Israel is a country
Judaism is a religion and an ethnicity

The two are not the same. Please, please educate yourself about this. This is exactly the problem.

[quote CommunistLegoBloc]@Hoppinggreen are you Jewish? Because I am, and I agree that conflating the Israeli government and individual Jews is anti-Semitic.

If you're not, what exactly gives you the authority and right to tell someone what constitutes anti-Semitism?[/quote]
My Response was to the person saying that anyone mentioning the Arab/Israeli conflicts is racist
There is Anti semitism on this thread and I abhor it but mentioning the conflict is not in itself anti Semitic and claiming that it is to shut down debate is not acceptable. Although I do think that this thread is not necessarily the place to have that debate.

@HebeMumsnet thank you for the lovely, lovely post. I so hope people will take notice - you know who you are.

Nobody said that anyone mentioning the Arab/ Israeli conflict was racist.
They said that bringing it to a thread where a British Jewish woman feels unsafe in Britain is racist.
It’s a crucial difference.

@GrumpyHoonMain - I'm guessing you live in Israel? Then if you have been assaulted and harassed by Israeli Jewish men then you must report it to the authorities. I have no idea how the process works in Israel, but if you start another thread, you may get some help and advice.

Holding all British Jews to blame for the Palestine situation is antisemitic.

Quite scary that people cannot condemn racism and misogyny that happened on the streets of the U.K. in 2021 with out a ‘but’

The rhetoric is getting so polarised I am not surprised people are getting scared and fear violence and hate crime.

A family chased around the arndale yesterday.

Today a Muslim YouTuber who had talked about a two state solution had thugs break into his house and terrorise his family.

Where is the world going when people cannot even voice an opinion or a solution anymore??

twitter.com/muftiabulayth/status/1394103583789010946?s=21
twitter.com/muftiabulayth/status/1394112853150511106?s=21
twitter.com/muftiabulayth/status/1394112894258884611?s=21

I'm sorry to hear this.

I'm also angry. Stupid people (including many in the Labour Party) who can't tell the difference between British Jews peacefully going about their lives and Israeli government policy.

I'm not Jewish but I don't vote labour any more, as the anti semitism disgusts me.

I'm in Manchester too and I will come and walk with you / stand outside the synagogue. I think more British non Jews need to stand up against this.

I agree @SingleDontWantToMingle - it's up to those of us who are not Jewish to challenge antisemitism and support Jewish people.

Those videos are completely disgusting.
Shameful.

"My Response was to the person saying that anyone mentioning the Arab/Israeli conflicts is racist"

But I didn't say that, did I, @Hoppinggreen?

I specifically said that anyone mentioning it in response to a British Jew talking about antisemitism is racist.

Because it is.

But keep digging

@IheartJKR

Those videos are completely disgusting. Shameful.

My stomach turned when I watched them.

I am sorry to share them. But I feel people need to see and be aware this is happening in the U.K.

SingleDontWantToMingle I completely agree. Those of us who are not Jewish absolutely need to call this out.

My great uncles stood against Moseley's thugs in the East End nearly a hundred years ago. They weren't Jewish, just a pair of lads who knew right from wrong (and I couldn't be prouder to be their niece). And yet this still keeps happening and we must, must, must keep standing up to it, whether it's thugs hollering their way around north London, or more subtle yes-buttery. It's never, ever okay.

I agree @Ohthatsgreat , it may be upsetting but it’s very important for us all to witness the awful racist, and terrifying behaviour being directed against innocent Jewish families within our communities in the UK.

@SingleDontWantToMingle - I also agree with you, we do need to stand up and be vocal on behalf of our Jewish citizens.
What can we do?

Holding all British Jews to blame for the Palestine situation is antisemitic.

Ofcourse it is. Absolutely no excuse for anyone holding individuals responsible for government actions, let alone threatening wirh violanve and inhumane actions.

I’m really upset at the fact the pro-Palestinian protest is however being vilified by 4 men who decided to behave stupidly and aren’t actually representive of anyone, have been called out by the protestors and have been arrested.

I think it’s incredibly unfair to vilify us in this way.

I find the posts on here trying to paint Muslims as racists antisemetic and that out mask has fallen to be incredibly islamophobia and racist.

If you switch the words and say

“Jews are all islamophobes who couldn’t care less for the human rights of Palestinians” in an emotionally charged thread where all Muslims are gathered for support on atrocities then it would be considered antisemetic.

I’m not sure one religion or identity should receive different human rights than another.

I think we really need to watch what we say. There are horrible individuals on all sides and belonging to all religions and communtiies.

And to choose to highlight the bad apples in order to dismiss the voices of the majority is in my view, deliberate propaganda to be racist.

I completely don’t expect every Jew to dissociate from the actions of Israel. And I’m someone with Palestinian heritage and generation long trauma.

Much like I wouldn’t expect every Muslim to start the conversation by dissociating from bin laden.

But when some war crimes are committed in our names I would encourage that’s e put pressures on the leaders of our communtiies to dissociate our identity from it.

Not because we have to. Not because our safety and civilian rights are conditional to this. Absolutely not, everyone should unconditionally feel safe.

But simply because, there are civilian lunatics on every side, and some people like to generalise and use lunatics to judge an entire population/community/movement.

And lunatics shouldn’t feel safe or protected in their communtiies.

And so I’m very glad that the Muslim and Poe Palestinian community figures have immediately called out the actions of those racist idiot thugs who have been threatening innocent Jewish civilians.

But I will also not allow for this to be used as a way to justify or excuse suppressing the voice of human rights activists whose movement was hijacked by this mob despite the millions who have been peacefully protesting

@FightingtheFoo

"My Response was to the person saying that anyone mentioning the Arab/Israeli conflicts is racist"

But I didn't say that, did I, @Hoppinggreen?

I specifically said that anyone mentioning it in response to a British Jew talking about antisemitism is racist.

Because it is.

But keep digging

Not digging, just not agreeing It may be irrelevant or inappropriate but not necessarily racist. Several times I have said that anti semitism is not something Jewish people should face whatever the circumstances and perhaps it’s at a minimum insensitive to talk about Israeli actions in Palestine on this thread but throwing accusations of Anti semitism or racism at people who genuinely aren’t but who have only committed the heinous crime of not agreeing with you is simply unhelpful. I wish OP well and hope that anyone committing a hate crime is dealt with swiftly and harshly, nobody should be afraid to live their lives the way they wish purely because of their religion or ethnic background and nobody should have to endure rape threats etc because of what a regime they have no influence over has done.

@IheartJKR

I agree *@Ohthatsgreat* , it may be upsetting but it’s very important for us all to witness the awful racist, and terrifying behaviour being directed against innocent Jewish families within our communities in the UK.

@SingleDontWantToMingle - I also agree with you, we do need to stand up and be vocal on behalf of our Jewish citizens.
What can we do?

What can we do?

I don't know I'm feeling angry but powerless. I'm appalled that this is happening in a country where Jewish people have been previously safe for hundreds of years.

I don't vote Labour.
I call out anti semitism when I see / hear it.
I check in on my British Jewish friends and offer to get shopping for them etc if they don't want to go out at the moment.
I'm going to email my local MP.

What else?