To be concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the UK?

[hibbledibble]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10447069/Terrifying-moment-Jewish-shop-owners-suffer-random-anti-Semitic-attack-London-street.html

Sorry that this is a daily mail article, but such events are common, but rarely reported on.

Antisemitism has increased at a worrying rate recently, and there seems to be little concern about this.

An example of antisemitism being tolerated, is that when footage of the above crime was posted to a local group on social media, some were saying that these men may have deserved the assault, and unpleasant comments made about Jews.

@Maireas

I will light a candle, I'm not Jewish. I am, however, it History teacher and have been teaching the Holocaust. Two students have claimed that it's made up, there's no such thing. This is what we're up against.

I am genuinely shocked that it’s really 1 in 20 who still deny the Holocaust. :( I always think that’s an exaggeration but I know it isn’t.

Yes, I agree strongly, Cornettoninja. I'm definitely seeing it packaged with other conspiracy theories, and one used to feed the other.

@Mrstamborineman

This is awful. Please safely put a candle in your window if you can for holocaust remembrance tonight. Travellers, Gypsies and Roma have long been considered to suffer the last acceptable form of racism too. It’s a difficult thing to come to terms with. Especially today.

Thank you for the reminder. Going to do that right away. My grandmother survived a concentration camp. And of course, the Romanies were also targeted for extermination by the Nazis.

A Jewish friend has been talking to me about anti-semitism she has experienced. It makes me so very sad and angry.

Definitely on the rise.
‘From the left’ is disingenuous. Just as much anti-semitism and racism on the right, ime, if not more.

@Cornettoninja

I agree it’s frightening, my personal theory is the rise in mainstream conspiracy during the pandemic has fuelled it to an extent although I think it was increasing before that. Look closely at the origins of a large percentage of conspiracies and you will find anti-semitism. Add that to conflicts and politics and it fuels average people to become emboldened in their views.

I don’t know what the answer is.

Yes, historically antisemitism and other forms of racism rise during times of social change and upheaval, crisis and plague. In fact during the Black Death of the 14th century, the Jewish communities were blamed for the disease - it was rumoured that the Jews had deliberately poisoned the wells. Whole communities were massacred, their houses burned to the ground.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jews_during_the_Black_Death

In our own times, Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a purveyor of a particularly repugnant set of conspiracy theories believed that the Californian wildfires were started by a Jewish cabal firing lazers from space. She is an elected politician.

@Marimaur

Definitely on the rise. ‘From the left’ is disingenuous. Just as much anti-semitism and racism on the right, ime, if not more.

I agree with this. It isn't a left-wing problem.

@Marimaur

Definitely on the rise. ‘From the left’ is disingenuous. Just as much anti-semitism and racism on the right, ime, if not more.

Ah, antisemitism. The only racism that comes from both left and right.

Rabbi YY Rubinstein quit over this incident at the BBC.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10367821/Jewish-broadcaster-resigns-BBC-inexcusable-anti-Semitism.html

My husband is Jewish, I am not and we don't live in a Jewish area but we hear and see what friends and family there put up with, horrible comments, grafitti and the ever present need for security at schools and synagogues. The number of antisemitic incidents is at its highest too
cst.org.uk/news/blog/2021/08/05/antisemitic-incidents-report-january-june-2021

Israel is a new convenient excuse for Jew bashing. Before that it was financial control of the world and before that it was that Jews killed Jesus. There's always some excuse for it somehow

Not Jewish but at the last GE for the first time in a many general elections I couldn't bring myself to vote Labour. Not only the anti-semitism but the fact that nobody condemned it our even admitted it was happening. I raised it with somebody in the party who said 'Oh no. Can't be because we get very good polling returns from Stamford Hill.'

[quote EllaDisenchanted]Rabbi YY Rubinstein quit over this incident at the BBC.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10367821/Jewish-broadcaster-resigns-BBC-inexcusable-anti-Semitism.html[/quote]
Ofcom are now investigating this.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60083325.amp

This makes me so sad to read. I'm not Jewish but I will put a candle in my window tonight. I spoke to my son about the holocaust yesterday, what happened and why it must never be allowed to happen again. He didn't know anything so I don't think his school has covered it, it's year 6 so hopefully it gets taught at secondary school. I'm so sorry for all who have experienced abuse.

The space lasers was equally astounding and terrifying. I can’t quite believe that anyone has a platform for this stuff in 2022.

[quote Sashimimimi]People, especially in the Labour part and on the “left”, are in denial that it’s on the rise.

The guardian chose to All Lives Matter the holocaust today 🙄

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/27/black-people-were-hitlers-victims-too-that-must-not-be-forgotten[/quote]
How very Guardian-ish.

@Cornettoninja

The space lasers was equally astounding and terrifying. I can’t quite believe that anyone has a platform for this stuff in 2022.

I'm Jewish and I don't know anything about this space laser cabal. How can I find out more? There's a few people I'd quite like to target.

I'm an orthodox Jew. The security on synagogues isn't the biggest outrage. It's the fact that my toddler's nursery has permanent security that should be outrageous. As does my older children's primary school (and the high schools).

We didn't have security when I was growing up (went to Jewish orthodox schools). Now it is so standard on every Jewish school and nursery and Synagogue, across every spectrum of orthodoxy, that it is utterly unremarkable to my children.

@Marimaur

Definitely on the rise. ‘From the left’ is disingenuous. Just as much anti-semitism and racism on the right, ime, if not more.

Of course there is anti-semitism on the right, I don’t think anyone is denying that but there has been serious issue of anti-semitism in the Labour Party and it has been minimised. Jewish Labour MPs have been targeted by members of their own party. Corbyn had a big following with Momentum, and the way they behaved towards Ruth Smeeth - he could have told them to knock it off, could have told them that their behaviour was out of order.

I think as someone who classed myself as Left wing for a long time, I guess I just expected better 🤷‍♀️

YANBU- I think there is a worrying rise. I think a lot of that is tied into the rise of fake-news conspiracy theory bullshit. 9 out of 10 conspiracy theories end up being anti-Semitic when you scratch down beneath the surface. It’s insidious and dangerous.

I think some of the criticism of the Guardian article is unfair. It’s what the Chief Executive and communications officer of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust decided to write. It would be far more off for the Guardian to refuse to publish them on Holocaust Memorial Day. I did raise a bit of an eyebrow at the headline, but it’s not a bad article and the writers are not people with an antisemitic axe to grind.

@EllaDisenchanted

I'm an orthodox Jew. The security on synagogues isn't the biggest outrage. It's the fact that my toddler's nursery has permanent security that should be outrageous. As does my older children's primary school (and the high schools).

We didn't have security when I was growing up (went to Jewish orthodox schools). Now it is so standard on every Jewish school and nursery and Synagogue, across every spectrum of orthodoxy, that it is utterly unremarkable to my children.

I remember this in the 90s. The difference then was that it was in response to a spate of specific threats as went on for a year or two. Now it seems to have become standard.

What I find most sinister is I think a lot of it comes from high up, springing from an idea that supporting Muslims and Islam inevitably involves denigrating Jews and Judaism. It’s a terrifying way of thinking.

@EllaDisenchanted

I'm an orthodox Jew. The security on synagogues isn't the biggest outrage. It's the fact that my toddler's nursery has permanent security that should be outrageous. As does my older children's primary school (and the high schools).

We didn't have security when I was growing up (went to Jewish orthodox schools). Now it is so standard on every Jewish school and nursery and Synagogue, across every spectrum of orthodoxy, that it is utterly unremarkable to my children.

That’s so sad that your children have to grow up thinking that is not only normal, but it is accepted in 21st Century British society. 😞

I can't understand anti semitism. Why would anyone hate Jews? It makes no sense to me. I'm not Jewish, but I'll be lighting a candle tonight. I saw adverts on the tube escalator today for World Holocaust Memorial Day asking people to do this.

Very worrying report from Community Security Trust in December:

WE ARE GENERATION TERROR!
cst.org.uk/news/blog/2021/12/14/we-are-generation-terror

A new report published today by CST and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Political Violence (ICSR) looks at the growing phenomenon of far-right youth networks spreading anti-Jewish hate and inciting terrorism across Europe.
[...]
analysing the ideology, online activities, offline activities and threat posed by 10 racial nationalist youth groups across Western Europe. By doing so it demonstrates that young people are not only vulnerable to online grooming, but also increasingly themselves the groomers, the propagandists, the recruiters, the plotters and the convicted perpetrators.
[...]
These groups’ ideologies mirror those of racial nationalists more widely, with common themes such as a belief in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, Islamophobia, xenophobia and homophobia. Antisemitism plays a key role in a lot of these groups’ ideologies, with the vast majority of groups spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories including Holocaust denial, and portraying Jews as the root of all problems.
[..]
The authors also identified the use of youth-specific narratives by some groups. Their youth conforms a core part of these groups’ in-group identity, which enables them to differentiate themselves from groups composed of older individuals. In addition, groups often push out narratives depicting young people as being both, those under threat and simultaneously those who should rise up to fight against their enemies. This framing, tailored towards recruiting other young people into their movement, increases the resonance of their message and has the potential of attracting young people into their group.
[...]
young extremists are bypassing mainstream social media companies’ moderation attempts, namely through the creation of backup accounts, and through a process of content funnelling, whereby groups post slightly more moderate content on mainstream social media platforms and then re-direct users to Telegram, where the more extreme content is hosted.

Groups’ offline activities also play a key role in their ability to attract and recruit young people into their movements. These activities play two main functions, namely fostering an in-group identity and inciting against the out-group. Regarding the former, sports, Mixed Martial Arts and hikes all play an important role in creating strong feelings of brotherhood which appeal to existing and potential members.

@CaptainMarvelDanvers' 'People, especially in the Labour part and on the “left”, are in denial that it’s on the rise.''

Generalise much? I am a London 'leftie' and I can clearly see that antisemitism is increasing and it is completely unacceptable.

I think hate-crimes and intolerance have risen in general and if you really want to be political you have people like Farage and his right-wing, Brexit-loving, ,minority-hating lot to thank for that...

Really? Do you think that it should not be mentioned that other groups of people were killed as well in the Holocaust? Why is that?

That isn’t what I said. Don’t put words into my mouth. It’s common knowledge that the nazis murdered anyone they didn’t class as aryan and physically or mentally healthy. And of course all of those victims deserve to be acknowledged and remembered.

But the word “holocaust” refers specifically to the genocide of Europe’s Jews. The industrialised mass murder of millions of Jewish people. The Jewish population of Europe was virtually eradicated.

That’s what Holocaust Memorial Day is intended to commemorate. The destruction of millions of people, of the entire world of Ashkenazi Jewish Europe.

The guardian article complains about the ‘marginalisation’ of other victims of the Nazis, on Holocaust Memorial Day. This comes across as seeking to minimise the fact that the Holocaust was the genocide of the Jewish people.

“Why would anyone hate Jews?”

Jews are the oldest, ultimate scapegoat. And antisemitism is a unique form of racism. It mutates like a virus. It used to be (and still is by the far right) for their race. More commonly now, we see the old style Soviet antisemitism; Jews are hated for their nation state- Israel. Here we see the old tropes mixed in with a complex land battle; killing children, taking control etc. Its just a reinvention or mutation of the same old bollocks. Then we have Islamist antisemitism. All these antisemites will have theirs “reasons” but only the far left cloak it in sickening piety.