Anti Semitism in the UK

[Oakmaiden]

This is in the news a lot at the moment.

I have never, to my knowledge, heard anyone make anti-Semitic remarks. Anti Islam, yes. Anti "them Polish people coming over here and taking our very badly paid jobs", yes. Anti Semitic, no. Am I just very lucky/ sheltered?

There was a well established (albeit dwindling) Jewish community where I grew up and anti-semitism wasn't expressed as strongly as other types of casual racism.

Maybe there was a sense of shock left over from the war?

I was born less than 25 years after the end of the of WWII which is the equivalent of looking back to 1990 now. Far less easy to revise and deny events of the early 90s.

when i was growing up i was part of a large jewish crowd however i was aware that it got alot of attention, all of which was bad. many memories of being chased by skin heads, friends being beaten up, shitting ourselves if we were on the tube and a few got on. from the age of 17 i left the crowd as was sick of being scared all the time, never hung out with jews since, just kept intouch with a few close old friends. needless to say i married out. having said all that, added with the fact that i don't 'look' stereo typical jewish, i come up against anti jewish bollocks on a reasonably regular basis. i was always overly generous, way more than anyone else ie would ususally be the one to pay for lunch. why? because i was always aware that people thought jews were tight and wanted to prove them were weren't all tight. if someone non jewish is tight, they were always referred to as being a tight jew, fucking pisses me off, always will. one of my worst from memory was when i lived in west london, used to regularly go to bayswater road (whiteleys shopping centre). there are a high number of arabs living there, i would frequently go into the newsagents to buy a paper. saw in more than one (not even tucked away) publications with derogatory illustrations depicting jewish girls, some in relation to israel but quite a few 'comics' that appeared to be just jewish girls on the front but drawn in a way to imply we were whores. what lives with me to the day was that a/they weren't hidden away, just sat that in the way womens own mag was and b/i never said anything to them or trading standards, more anger with myself. can't believe they had these openly for sale AND that i didn't challenge it

I am a governor of a school with a very high predominance of Muslim pupils and the anti semitism can get awful.

But then the school is in an area where anti semitism is rife. The synagogue closed down years ago. The few remaining Jews left.

If you want some evidence of anti-semitism just google a little and you will find very nasty stuff on the internet. I'm not going to give out any websites.

You know there are only around 290.000 Jews in the UK right? Even if that's an underestimate it's v likely to be under half a million.

Is anyone surprised by that?

Like WhataboutBob, I'm interested in finding out who the anti-semites are.

A couple of posters earlier suggested UKIP were aggravating things. I do think UKIP are ignorant bastards who 'other' groups. However, I don't think they are necessarily the ones behind the resurgence of anti-semitism that we are seeing now.

A lot of it is clearly driven by young radical Muslims. What purpose does hating Jews serve? Like the Falklands did for Thatcher, it unites, a common enemy bands disparate groups together and it also distracts.

I would like to see Muslim and Jews mix more, no state funded faith schools and more reaching out, interaction with other communities, far more help given to those Muslim leaders/parents who are trying their very best to lead their children down a moderate path.

I also see anti-semitism driven by conspiracy theorists - these can be from left or right - (although ime they're often left-leaning - and see Jews as a kind of shorthand for American/Bankers/capitalists.) These people can now easily disseminate their views on social media - I've seen it on Mumsnet and on Facebook: 9/11 - Jews. Isis - Jews. Attacks in France -Mossad. Even the Holocaust - fault of the Jews. Its good to question things, of course, but these people are obviously pushing a racist agenda without any evidence or logic...but hey who cares about that.

They've done some psychological profiling on who does this. They tend to come up the same types: they usually feel disgruntled, they feel they are not getting the success they deserve, they have poor relationships. Believing in a conspiracy theory or 'knowing that the Jews are all...lizards...who control the world or whatever' while feeling that no one else gets it, gives them a bit of control back - it makes them feel clever even while in real life they are the very definition of fucked up.

I think we need to spend more on mental health services.

I must say I was fully expecting to get flamed for saying that a lot of the aggressive anti semitism out there comes from certain (probably young, possibly disenfranchised) sections of the muslim population . I am grateful that I haven't been, and find the tone on this thread more grown up than on many others that deal with sensitive issues.
Other posters have described being abused by non muslims, plus the tiresone stereotyping they have had to put up with from the general population so i realise it is by no means a muslim only phenomenon. Most muslims probably have better things to do than obsess about Israel and the Jews. Having said that, the cartoons in the newsagent in Bayswater are probably the tip of a nasty iceberg of anti semitic conspiracies that often swill aroud the middle east- they even said 9/11 was masterminded by Mossad!
Totally agree about the profiling of people who indulge in anti semitic rants online. I also suspect that much like the individuals who post disgustingly misogynistic stuff about women in the public eye, they are inadequate individuals who give themselves a cheap shot of self esteem by viciously calumniating others.

I think the reports carried out by charities monitoring islamophobia - tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/finalreport.pdf and antisemitism www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%202013.pdf

Its difficult to compare them as you can get spikes depending on what isreal is doing and events like Lee Rigby.

The nature of aggressive anti semitism has changed in the UK over the centuries. Even if someone hates Jews, its more work to find an unfortuate Jew to bully directly. British white far right who were anti semitisic focus their energies on being anti muslim. I don't think think this an improvement.

I don't know about anti semitisic behaviour in the muslim community. I suppose its possible. I suppose that the rest of us are also anti semitistisic if we don't stand up for jews.

Interesting kim147 at a relatives work place it appears ok for Indian people to complain about the number of 'stinking pakis'

When working in the Middle East on a forum a UK mother was complaining about how at the creche an arabic child was scaring other children saying that Isrealis come in the night and murder Lebanese babies. In the government office I worked in in Qatar (home of AL-jazeera TV!) your would get emails every so often comparing the isreali treatment of palistinians to that of hitler and jews, eg picture of hitler youth with armed young isrealis (have kept the email as testament)

I remember Nick Griffin though maybe he was just trolling about how many Jews were killed in the holocaust.

there is alot of dislike among loads of different groups, as a jew, jews were often not particularly fond of other jews who lived in different areas (ridiculous as it sounds, not going into more detail). my friend (already mentioned in another post) was recently upset when she told me someone she knows (not particularly friends) was being rude about muslims (she is muslim) not knowing she was muslim (the lady was hindu, she thought my friend was). Someone i know who is from the west indies was telling me how much she can't stand nigerians. this is so crazy. If only we could all get on, life would be so much sweater (not meaning to sound like some preaching maniac......) :0)

I am not Jewish, but some people in the past have felt that I 'looked' Jewish and made snide remarks. Nothing at all recent, although that may be partially down to me having a nose job and people who aren't too bright tend to automatically associate big noses with being Jewish. However I ended up marrying a Jewish man and we once had an incident where this nutter started following him in the street, trying to hit him and saying 'you killed Jesus'. That was years ago, probably in the 90s and we got rid of him by saying we would call the police.

Because DH isn't at all religious, his grandparents Anglicised his surname years ago (because of wartime fears of having a foreign-sounding name) chances are that people don't even know he's Jewish unless the subject comes up. I have seen a rise in rather nasty comments under newspaper articles and on FB which relate to anything Jewish. I think there has been a hardening of attitudes and a rise of intolerance, although not just about Jews.

I live in States and have a lot of Jewish friends and acquaintances. They definitely feel there is anti semitism here, a lot of it comes from hurtful jokes and inane comments. I have witnessed it myself at work where my boss made a really dreadful " joke" about concentration camps. Shocking and I don't understand it all. I've also see people at work refer to a client as " The Jew".

I am now hesitant to tell people I meet that I am Jewish and that we have Israeli family.

God the world is a bit crap.

In Eastern Europe in the early 90s there were still vestiges of what you might call "traditional" anti-semitism. I think it's a sort of combination of disgust and envy and ends up with using names like "dirty" to talk about jews. It's the fear of the "other" and centres around things like diet.

Some of the nicest people I know oppose Israel's activities in Palestine. It's very sad if those people are being called anti-semites just because they speak up for the powerless. And I hope I don't get accused of being AS if I say that you cannot justify occupying land by referring to the bible as justification.

God yes please to educating us together and getting rid of faith schools.

Please someone post something positive as I am now depressed.

No one on here, from what I've seen, is saying that opposing Israel's policy regarding Palestinians makes someone an anti-semite wellintothenewyear.

What I and most of the other posters were saying is that Israel's domestic policy is being used to justify antisemitism on a much wider scale, despite it being a completely different thing.

I'm Jewish, but believe that Israel is using vastly disproportionate force against the Palestinians, but the two things are separate. Am I an anti-semite? Hell, no! The two are different.

Maybe that's the best thing we can do: keep the two separate.

Thanks!

To those saying they don't hear antisemitism...

I am not Jewish. Nor is DH. We live in area with almost no Jews (really, almost none). But a little while ago DH heard a really obnoxious throwaway antisemitic comment, from a white Brit. He's not usually slow to respond but he said he was so shocked he just stood there opening and closing his mouth. These sorts of comments are not common round here, but the attitudes still clearly exist even in the absence of Jews.

The Jews I know (I met a lot at uni when I briefly left the sticks) don't tend to see antisemitism where it doesn't exist, either: alert, yes; oversensitive, no. If they say it's out there, I believe them.

On the plus side, DD has just asked what I was doing and informed me that 'No one at my school gives a crap... It's just another religion, why would that bother you? I mean, why would anybody care what religion you were?'

The friend of mine who most posts on facebook against anti-semitism is a Muslim. Yes, some people do think that all Jews are in favor of the actions of Israel, but everyone everywhere has to point out the difference.

Wherever there is a rise in a Muslim population you can believe that the hatred of Jewish people rises accordingly. I live in a majority Muslim country and what us said casually at book clubs and dinner parties is beyond shocking. Referencing the Holocaust as having failed etc and said with venom. This is from Arabs in the region.

I personally cannot understand how we, as people, still have cancers like this within our society. Have we learnt nothing?

Obviously, one can criticise the Israeli govt without being anti-Semitic. Israelis do if all the time. Similarly, one can criticise immigration without being racist. But just as racism often seeps into the immigration debate, so do Israel-related discussions descend into a-s imagery (conspiracies, dual loyalties, blood libels, etc).

This is interesting and depressing. I live in Surrey, an area where almost no Jews live, and work in North London, where there are quite a lot, and a number of my colleagues are Jewish. Amongst my non-Jewish friends and relations, with one exception*, I have never heard any anti-semitism, but I am aware from my colleagues/friends that it exists, and they experience it. It's not something we talk about a lot, and it is so depressing to hear that the Jewish people posting here think it's on the increase.

*I have dropped this 'friend' who worked in the ME for a while. He made a very anti-Semitic remark as we were saying goodbye after a lunch. I had to dash off, so I didn't pick him up on it, to my regret and shame. I have since dropped him, but he got back in contact recently, as he's moved to a rural area and thought he'd come across some old friends of mine, through his work, so wanted to check if it was them. It was, so he'll probably be making contact with them. The thing is, one of them has a Jewish mother, and I don't know whether to warn them off him. I'd really welcome some advice!

morning bearleigh, tbh ii wouldn't say anything to your friend, they can make their own decision re him and if he is that bad he will make himself known to them in time. if anything, although i probably wouldn't bother as he has his views and i doubt you could change them, but you could ask him about his views........thank you for caring, i mean that sincerely, thank you :0)