If you were told to hide your Jewishness, when was the first time?

[Trulywonderful]

If you were ever told to hide being Jewish when was the first time?

I remember my father hiding his star of David when we travelled to certain countries abroad as I was Growing up. Also sometimes if we were near a particularly iffy looking crowd whilst out in the UK. However he never really spoke to me about it as a child. This was something I noticed him doing and worked out why.

When I was around 22 years old and starting to get my own place etc he said something to me. He told me to never put on any official forms that I am Jewish. That he knew is sounded crazy living in the Britain but you just never know.

I remember thinking at the time he was being ridiculous. I knew he was born just after the war and obviously growing up he had heard such threatening things. So felt it came from his own parents and grandparents trauma. However in the last 10 years or so he suddenly hasn't sounded quite so crazy.

I have Jewish heritage. I have a Star of David necklace that belonged to my grandmother. My family asked me not to wear it (just recently) as they didn’t feel it was safe.

I’ve done this on and off since being a child. I suppose it has depended on the situation. For some reason, now in these times, I feel more regretful than ever that I have sometimes hidden my Jewishness. I should have always embraced it. I want to hide it less now. I’m not sure this make sense.

Honestly, it's only been recently. DH told me not to wear my Magen David outside my blouse walking to shul. He had a hat over his kippah.

I just applied for a job in academia, and for the first time ever, I didn't tick Jewish for religion.

I understand this

Though as an adult I have never gone out of my way to hide the fact I am Jewish. Not being religious it isn't obvious and I only used to mention in conversation if relevant. However after lockdown and the last big I/P kick off, I realised the teenagers I worked with needed to see Jewish people are just normal like them.

Since 2021 I have worn my grandmother's star of David to work and been more openly, loudly Jewish. This means students have been asking me questions and can see Jews are not the things social media or some in their own community say we are. Obviously I avoid talking about Israel or conflict etc with students because that would not be professional. However I have debated with other staff members on occasion. One members of staff I feel safe talking about it with though.

I have never hidden my Jewishness. I have at times/in locations/among certain company been discreet about my Israeli heritage. But not so much because I feared attack, more that it has been my experience that some people will refuse to agree to differ, and make our disagreement the focus of the situation, however irrelevant.

I think that the influence of my heritage - as well as having the privilege of growing up in a pluralistic society - affected my attitude.

"Never again" is really meaningful in my family. I am the child and grandchild of pioneers of Israel and Holocaust survivors - and the great-niece of many, many more victims of the Holocaust.

This song, Zog Nit Keynmol, was written by a young Jewish partisan Can led Hirsch Glick. He was killed aged 22 during the Holocaust. The words absolutely embodied my parents attitude:

^Never say that you are on your final road,
Though overhead dark clouds of lead may death forebode. The long-awaited hour surely will appear,
With a roar our steps will thunder: we are here!^

With a roar our steps will thunder: we are here!

I was told since a child. Never tell. never tell anyone. Never stand out. Definitely never ever put it on any official forms such as the census or any other form.

My family definitely hid it when I was growing up. My father was brought up as a Catholic yet his mother would take him and his sisters to synagogue on the sly, but it was secret. There was so much inherited trauma.

A couple of my childhood friends with whom I am still friends know. Not one of them- not ONE- has asked how i am or how i am feeling. I spent the entire day with my closest childhood friend last week and the subject of Israel or antisemitism was never broached. Nobody can be unaware of the open anti semitism right now surely?

I have told my Dcs aged 13 and 11 to never tell. When October 7 happened I asked them 'who knows?' and a couple of their friends know. They are so scared as well and my older one told me today he has joined a Christian prayer group at school as a way of hiding. Honestly.... I am okay with that. Whatever needs to be done to protect ourselves right now.

I am 52. Secular but always been very involved in the Jewish community in the U.K. I have never ever felt worried or wanted to hide my identity - until now.
I think it was my daughter's school telling them to cover their uniform, not wear their blazers in transport, not wear their pe leggings with the school's name on it and instead, wear normal leggings.
It's freaked me out. I live in a Jewish area in north London, work in a Jewish organisation, don't look Jewish and all my non - Jewish friends are very supportive. However, it's the first time I have ever felt apprehensive about being Jewish.

My earliest memory is of my great granny in a nursing home crying and telling my parents to hide me. She escaped Germany in 1938 and had dementia in her later years - she thought we were all back there.
On a school exchange to Berlin in my teens, my host family went to see a relative. I was told not to mention my name or that I was Jewish - the family member had been in the Nazi party. I look back now and can't quite believe they put me in that position.
I have a very obviously Jewish name and am pretty hesitant about sharing it at the moment.

I took off my Magen David when I was about 13 and never put it back on again out of fear. If we go somewhere straight after school, I change my 7 year old out of his school uniform as it's quite clearly a Jewish school.

My brother went the other way and bought himself a massive Magen David that he wore from when he was about 11. He was beaten up by adults as a result. I've never forgiven my parents for allowing him to wear it.

My other brother who lives in Israel was visiting with his family this summer. They're orthodox. They took their kippahs off when out and about (children are 3 and 5) and only spoke English. Just in case. (This was not in England - other European country).

I am not Jewish but am of Jewish heritage. My paternal grandmother was a refugee from Lithuania who arrived in the UK as a young woman in the 1930s. Although she chose to become secular (my family have since adopted some Jewish practices), she often spoke Yiddish at home with my father and taught me her childhood songs in Yiddish. I clearly remember as a very young child being told by my father not to sing a particular song outside our home. He grew up in an area of England with a very homogenous culture, I think that being in someway ‘different’ was a source of some shame for him, and he has told very few people about his family’s heritage.

I only found out that my mother’s family were Jewish in my 30s. Although we had some traditions that might have given it away - eating no bread, only matzo over Easter week, latkes and doughnuts on Christmas Eve, no pork at all. And my great gran spoke Yiddish.

My Mum told me just before she died that she was chased through the streets and had stones thrown at her for being Jewish in the 30s. The family took the decision to essentially reinvent themselves - they changed their name and moved to West London. So similar to the poster above. When my Mum died I found a load of photos I’d never seen before - her as a small child on the rabbi’s lap, the whole family outside one of the West London synagogues.

I was at the Solidarity with British Jews March yesterday, and I noticed that at the end, when marchers started heading to the train station, they all either rolled up their posters to conceal them or left them behind. In contrast, I've seen so many marchers from the Pro-Palestine protests flaunting their placards, flags and posters on the way home...

I’ve never hidden it in terms of always full out forms and tick Jewish as a religion.
I don’t wear my magen dovid out and about, but I never have, it’s not a recent thing.
Uni was probably the ‘scariest’ time for me (in the early 90s) as students tended to be more left-wing/never met a Jewish person etc. Someone said ‘but you’re normal…’
I didn’t announce my religion, but never denied it either of someone asked outright. I specifically didn’t want to go to a ‘Jewniversity’ as wanted to branch out in life a bit! In the end I immediately met a girl on my course who was Jewish and we had an instant connection 😆 I did have other non-Jewish friends as well!