Thank you for your sentiments @Binglebong . I appreciate them.
I wonder if other non-Jews are feeling similarly to you and will pop by this thread to have a read. If so, I hope you don't mind me taking advantage of the situation by posing a question to them.
If you recognise and are against the horrible rise of antisemitism in the UK, have you done anything about it?
I imagine it's hard to work out what you can do to help.
I have a sense that there is a large silent majority that do recognise antisemitism and are against it but unfortunately, silence and inaction creates an environment when racists feel their thoughts are acceptable and that their aggressive words and actions are too.
So here are some concrete things you can actually do. None of them require much time or money...
Call it out. If you witness antisemitic comments – in person, on social media, in your workplace, at the school gate – say something. You don't need a perfect response. "I find that offensive" or "that's not okay" or "You're an antisemite" is enough. Silence is read as agreement.
Report it. In the UK you can report antisemitic hate crimes to the police (101 or online), and also directly to the Community Security Trust (CST) at report.cst.org.uk – they track incidents and use the data to push for action. You can report on behalf of someone else.
Correct the record online. When you see antisemitic conspiracy theories or tropes shared on social media – even by people you know – a calm, factual response matters. You don't have to get into an argument. Just don't scroll past.
Understand how language is being weaponised. The words "Zionist" and "genocide" are increasingly misused in ways that bleed into antisemitism. "Zionist" (which simply means someone who supports the existence of a Jewish state) is routinely used as a slur, as a way of expressing hatred of Jewish people while maintaining plausible deniability. Meanwhile, "genocide" is being applied to the conflict in Gaza in ways that most historians and legal scholars would not support, and the effect (intended or not) is to cast Jewish people and Israel in the most extreme possible moral terms. You don't have to have a view on the conflict to notice when language is being deployed to dehumanise rather than to inform.
Educate yourself a little. Many people struggle to recognise antisemitism because it often doesn't look like other racism – it frequently masquerades as political opinion or "just asking questions." The Holocaust Educational Trust and the CST both have accessible free resources. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is also worth reading.
Talk to your kids about it. Schools vary enormously in how well they handle this. If your children are old enough, raise it at home – what it is, why it's wrong, and what to do if they encounter it.
Use your vote and your voice. Write to your MP if antisemitism isn't being taken seriously locally or nationally. It takes ten minutes. They do pay attention to volume of correspondence. I've done this recently and received a response from my MP. She's raising my questions to the government. Goodness knows if anything will come of it but the more people doing similar, the better.
None of this is heroic. But the cumulative effect of a lot of ordinary people doing ordinary things is what actually shifts culture.
Thank you to anyone who is doing something concrete already and to those who are even a teeny bit inspired by my suggestions for action, rather than silence and acceptance.