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.

As a child, we went on holiday to rural Wales where there aren’t really any Jewish people. We met some local kids there. When they found out we were Jewish they asked where our horns are, and is it true that Jews don’t have reflections when we look in mirrors. Not being in an area where there is a Jewish population doesn’t mean that you won’t pick up on ignorance.
Hatred of Jews is alive and well. Look at last weekends Texas hostage situation. Barry discussed. And reported in the news as a ‘hostage’ situation. In quotations. Wtf

I have challenged anti Semitism (and all kinds of racism) when I've heard it... I work in a hospital as an HCA and one nurse I was working the night shift with made a comment about a patient basically saying he was rude because he was Jewish - I told her that comment was unacceptable, she didn't apologise but she didn't make any other offensive comments.

I think it's important for colleagues to challenge comments when they are made straight away and call them out as long as it's safe to do so.

I just feel sad that anti Semitism & racism in general are still very much an issue in the UK.

I remember my late Nan's Jewish friend Morris especially- he was 18 in 1944, and fought on D Day.
He really liked my Nan, who had some Jewish ancestry herself and he kept buying her presents.
They both lived in the same over 65s warden assisted block of flats.
Well, it was awful actually because none of the other women would talk to Morris- purely because he said he was Jewish.
They actually told my Nan they were avoiding him because he was Jewish. Unbelievable.
So my Nan was his only friend there until they both got dementia and died in 2017.

I worry about all these conspiracy theories that so many people believe in & follow online like QAnon & anti Vaxx, New World Order, Illuminati etc-they are all from the far right & have their roots in Anti Semitism.

Also I follow Socialists Against Antisemitism on Facebook who keep a close watch on anti Semitism in politics and make some interesting posts.

I am grateful for this thread for opening my eyes a little more.
I read Jews Don't Count and found it really interesting - loads of myths/tropes discussed and great to read to understand more about the issue.

As an atheist from Christian background I can't understand why what I believe and what anyone else believes are so in conflict.
Even if a (strict) person of faith believes in God and that I will go to hell for lack of faith, then that's absolutely fine for them to have that belief, it doesn't change anything about my life at all.
I also think religion can be a wonderful thing and has helped many people I know cope with trauma, illness and bereavement.

I will never, never understand why whole groups of people are seemingly ripe for abuse.

What is wrong with Jewish people? Is it traditionally your supposed 'otherness'? Your non Christian-Ness?
It's absolutely bonkers. Jesus was a Jew. Why don't we love and admire Jews?!

Sorry to all who suffer AS. I have lit a candle in my window for HRD.

@MissVictoriaPlum sorry to hear that your grandma is having to put up with that.

@DontBuyANewMumCashmere my SIL has been told 'Jews killed Jesus'. Apparently thats the explanation.

I think it could be, a lot stemming from Israel/Palestine and people's perspectives on how those countries may be acting

I’m sort of surprised at the people asking “what is it about Jews that makes people hate them…”
Would you say that about anyone else? Shall I respond with all the reasons that I’m supposedly hated? Does you understanding/not understanding validate/invalidate the hate that I receive?
Would you ask a victim of a sexual assault - “what was it about you that made him attack you?”

[quote onlychildhamster]@DontBuyANewMumCashmere my SIL has been told 'Jews killed Jesus'. Apparently thats the explanation.[/quote]
My husband said that the other night when I asked him why he thought antisemitism is so rife. (He doesn't think this, btw, just gave it as a reason why historically it might be so!)

But wasn't it the Romans who claimed he was a criminal and crucified him?
They were in charge in the area and that time weren't they?
(Sorry for diabolical RE and historical knowledge!)

Let’s not conflate the existence of a state, a religion and an ethnicity. They all exist and should be treated as separate things. It’s important to be nuanced and careful about this.

@BigWholeBean

I’m sort of surprised at the people asking “what is it about Jews that makes people hate them…” Would you say that about anyone else? Shall I respond with all the reasons that I’m supposedly hated? Does you understanding/not understanding validate/invalidate the hate that I receive? Would you ask a victim of a sexual assault - “what was it about you that made him attack you?”

I do apologise if that was in response to my post above, I thought I was clear that I don't understand that position!

I remember being told as a kid that I killed Jesus as though I had personally gone and crucified the man (bit before my time honestly).

I've read today people sticking up for Wiley because "Jew's aren't a race". It does feel that for a variety of reasons people feel that antisemitism is more acceptable than other forms of racism.

For all those who lost their lives and loved ones, we remember.

[quote Duke4]@Greywhippet
Rebecca L-B shared an antisemitic article. She is also a die-hard Corbynite which tells you everything you need to know. Indeed the rot starts at the top.[/quote]
Which anti Semitic article are you referring to? Can you explain what was anti Semitic about it? Genuine question.
Also, how do you explain the ‘die hard Corbynites’ who are Jewish themselves? There are a fair few in my local party and several in Corbyn’s constituency. Again, genuine question.

@shedevill

I think it could be, a lot stemming from Israel/Palestine and people's perspectives on how those countries may be acting

Antisemitic hate crime increases during war in Israel/Palestine. Again, it is antisemitic to blame Jews as a collective for perceived grievances against Israel, as per IHRA definition of antisemitism. I’m not saying you are but this certainly happens.

I have a candle lit tonight.

I had no idea that people were having to employ security guards at weddings nurseries and old people's homes. That is very shocking information to me.

Just to say re Marcus Rashford: in his defence he has now tweeted that he wasn't aware of and doesn't condone Wiley's comments. He says they just happened to be in the same place at the same time hence the photo op happening.

@MissVictoriaPlum has your grandma ever been a guest speaker at the National Holocaust Memorial Centre?
I listened to a survivor of the Kindertransport speak and it was the unheard stories that choked me up. Pure evil.

Afterwards I spoke to someone who worked at the museum and remarked, 'this is all quite scary.'
'Yes' she replied, 'it only takes the same attitudes for his to happen all over again, and for people to vote for the wrong person.' We both agreed that the Holocaust, could happen all over again if people accepted these awful racist views. Its unthinkable, but a real possibility.

@DontBuyANewMumCashmere yes it was the Roman soldiers who arrested Jesus.
But it was all in God's plan for Jesus to be crucified so He could rise again.
He was charged with blasphemy, for declaring He was the Son of God. The Jewish high priests had planned his arrest and hated Jesus. They thought he shouldn't be hanging around with tax collectors, prostitutes, sick people etc. Jesus was also a Jew, but was also disliked by the high priests for his teachings in the temples.

YANBU it's horrific and The Labour Party are a disgrace on the issue - as for the grauniad - it's basically a rag now with nothing in it I want to read - I say that as a lefty

I'm looking at The Guardian online and I see that their article on Holocaust Day is about black victims of Hitler (Jews aren't mentioned in the headline or intro at all) with a photo of Jesse Owens (!) and it sits next to an Owen Jones piece on islamaphobia. Quite something - and not something good.

@Needacuppanow she used to do a lot of work with schools doing Holocaust assemblies etc. She doesn't walk very well now so doesn't do anymore. she carries a lot of grief but also gratitude for her parents courage in putting their 10 year old on the kindertransport. She has a lot of important memorabilia - her 'Jude' star for example, that she intends to leave to a museum.
Her story of bravery and terror is hard to hear. And here she is 85 years later still feeling unsafe for being a Jew.

It’s definitely on the rise, and I feel more vulnerable than I ever have before. What makes it so much more frightening is the sheer number of people who insist it isn’t happening. Yet I’ve met an awful lot of non-Jews who seem to think they are experts on the Jewish experience, more so than me (an actual Jew).

It’s sickening to see this hatred grows by the day. It’s sickening to see how the vote here has gone. It’s sickening to read that there are children who don’t know about the Holocaust, or who flat out state it’s made up.

I’m not Jewish, but this doesn’t mean it’s not my responsibility to learn about it. I’m the one who needs to be doing the work, I’ve met so many people who don’t bother informing themselves on this issue, because ‘it doesn’t concern them’.

I worked at the Jewish Museum in Berlin last summer, for a few days. Passport copies submitted and police background check done the week before we were first given access to the building. I’ve worked in some remote parts of the planet and gone through dozens of airports, in and out of dodgy countries, and nowhere have I seen that level of security before.

I visited again last month with my family as I live nearby and they came for the holidays. We spent 5 hours inside and I don’t think we took in even 10%. Those who don’t believe the Holocaust existed, should spend some time on the first floor where there are walls literally packed with all the laws given during the Nazi government period, against the Jews. You’d need hours to read them all. It is absolutely heartbreaking to see it there, written out. I don’t know how anybody can see that and claim they don’t care or it’s a thing ‘of the past’. Why? Why hate people like that?

Ignorance is not an excuse. If you don’t know about it, you go and educate yourself. You go and read about how entire families were killed. You go and talk to people whose grandparents or parents survived a concentration camp. You go and talk to people who were the only member of their synagogue to get out of there alive. You go and learn, and teach others as you go. You teach your children and don’t say ‘they’re too young to learn about that’. The children killed, or forced to work in concentration camps, weren’t too young. They had to bloody live it.

We teach kids in KS1 about different families, different colours of skin. We celebrate pride and black history month. Why? To prevent homophobia and racism. Well, some of it. Clearly we don’t do a thorough job because we, as a society (and here I include the whole of Europe), don’t consider it necessary to teach young children that hating Jewish people isn’t acceptable. We don’t consider it necessary to teach them the history of the abuse and hatred which dates back millennia. We are not doing enough.

@Otherpeoplesteens

My last MP was Rebecca Long-Bailey.

'Nuff said. The rot starts at the top.

Err who has actually been at the top of UK politics over the last 12 years? and what is our PMs views on Muslims etc.

Racism of all kinds has never really gone away, anti-Semitism is alive an kicking, as is Islamophobia.

Its needs stamping out and that really does start at the top with changes in attitudes and robust law enforcement.

@ghostyslovesheets

YANBU it's horrific and The Labour Party are a disgrace on the issue - as for the grauniad - it's basically a rag now with nothing in it I want to read - I say that as a lefty

...again, read our current PMs views on race?

Lefty? 'course you are.

I am Jewish (convert) and married to an Israeli. I have never experienced any antisemitism beyond my brother (of all people!) casually telling me I was "a bit Jewish with the sugar" in his cup of coffee. Believe me I set him straight over that! But it looks like I've just been incredibly lucky to avoid it, and my kids tell me they do hear antisemitic things at school.

I lived in Israel for several years but would never move back now, it has sadly fallen to the far right like so many other countries. And the reason we left in the first place was that we were ready to start a family and didn't feel it was a safe place to raise children - that was 17 years ago. So I don't understand people who make aliyah because they don't feel safe here. I hate to think how bad the abuse must be that would make them think of leaving the UK.

I'm sorry for all the abuse.

I really dont understand why people do this or why it is so widespread.