Antisemitism

[bubbleandsqueak1976]

I read the posts on here with interest and often the subject of anti semitism comes up. I was brought up in a town in the South East. My mum gave me a book about Anne Frank when I was around 8 and I can remember asking ' what is a Jew?' as I had never met one. When I was about 14 a girl from northern Israel came to my school and I was asked to befriend her and help her settle in. I can remember being fascinated about her life in a Kibbutz and she used to show me
Hebrew writing. I don't recall ever hearing anything anti semitic about her or her brother as the only two Jewish kids - to my knowledge in the school. I also remember in my twenties encountering a group of lads from North London - white something and them having an absolute hatred for Jewish people. I can remember feeling utterly shocked as I'd never heard anti Jewish speak prior to this. Reading some of the recent posts on here it has made me wonder wherever there are pockets in the Uk with Jewish communities that experience antisemitism where the rest of the UK it does not occur as people simply have never met a Jewish person just their life- to their knowledge.Where I live I have only met 4 Jewish people in the Uk in my life and I am 47. The most Jewish people I have met were in Israel when I visited in 2000.

More to follow....

Wow, I don't have words for the above...

Tomorrow there is a local event, won't say too much for anonymity, hosted at our local council building - an evening of bullshit to raise money for unrwa, tagline "it did not start on Oct 7th". What can I do?

It's disgraceful. They could host that event literally any time. But no, they chose this weekend.

Genuinely open to ideas for things I can do... I've already sent an angry email, couldn't find the emotional energy to be especially compelling, but needed to let them know that at least one person in the place finds it wrong.

The Republic of Ireland, Australia, and Spain seem to be absolute cesspools of antisemitism.

I'm in Liverpool, which has a huge Irish population, and Irish ancestry. I'm certain it's why the city has so much anti-Israel feeling.

Ireland is particularly bad. I'm more to the left than many Jews, which is not to say I am supporting JVP or IJV I should say, but Ireland is a whole other league. As I said in one thread on here, Ireland is caught between identifying the Palestinians with the Catholics and its historical antisemitism and lack of Jews. In my experience many Irish people have little idea about that history. I'm always surprised, given the history, how the Irish romanticise religious militants but perhaps I shouldn't be. (It's also interesting how many leftists today just ignore the history of secular Palestinian nationalism. Say what you will about Fatah or the PFLP, and there's plenty to say, but they were assuredly secular and that's why Palestinian Christians were active in those groups.)

As well as emails to councillors and whoever is the officer/s responsible to community cohesion is there an interfaith forum?is there someone who, for example organises an event for Holocaust Memorial Day? Lots of councils host something. Just thinking of how you identify people who have positions which mean they should engage with your objection. I would also send an email through the general contact form online. They then have to think who is the relevant person to send it to.

You could make a formal complaint to the head of the council. I’ve found Campaign against antisemitism and CST good sources of advice and support too

Absolutely revolting thread in AIBU right now. Why are these threads always started at unsociable hours, I wonder 🤔

Just awful. I’ve emailed MN about it and said that posts on ME should be moved to CITME at least. Who are these people?!?!

https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-google&sca_esv=eab902f88a49963b&sxsrf=ADLYWIKC_0-RXLpLKkHdo7-r0AhyMeJuhg%3A1728849124997&kgmid=%2Fg%2F1tzlyfvh&q=Hendon%20Golf%20Club&shndl=30&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fact%2Fm4%2F2

And this is despite reassurances from others that anti-Semitism really isn't that big of a problem, that we're mostly just making it up.

The link is just to Hendon golf
club? What happened?

https://metro.co.uk/2024/10/13/swastika-daubed-hendon-golf-club-grounds-yom-kippur-21785831/

Several sand bunkers were daubed with antisemitic words and symbols on a course in Hendon. Signs at the golf course property were also damaged.

Other bunkers had ‘f* the Jews’ and ‘Heil Hitler’ written across them.

ETA: Apologies for the aggressively large swastika picture.

🤮🤮🤮🤮

🤦🏻‍♀️ stupid phone

That's terrible. They'll probably say we're just 'Jew-washing' everything now: https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/opinion/garcia-columbus-jewish/index.html
Even Christopher Columbus was Jewish.

How is this being received do you think? When I was growing up Columbus was one of the great men of history - now he's the original coloniser (I mean, obviously he isn't, but you know what I mean).

It seems to be largely nonsense. I thought this theory was debunked years ago. Anyway, it seems this researcher went to the press instead of publishing it in a journal and the evidence is sketchy.

I'm not sure it makes much difference @knitnerd90, given the lack of critical thinking skills of a vocal minority. (At least, I hope it's just a minority!)

@SharonEllis I'm hopeful it raises awareness of how longstanding antisemitism has been. The oldest hate indeed. Some articles I've read on this new finding details many of the prejudices / actions against Jewish people in Columbus' time. I hadn't thought of the coloniser angle but can see it could be problematic.

I didn't initially actually read your link (!) Or see the date @BeretInParis - as it was all over the news so I just assumed it was the same story. But also I didn't pay much attention to the news story as I thought suggestions he was Jewish had been knocking around for years. Anyway seems the latest is DNA evidence but even that is problematic. https://www.jns.org/experts-advise-caution-about-report-christopher-columbus-was-jewish/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/13/christopher-columbus-was-spanish-and-jewish-documentary-reveals

A friend shared a post from Jonathan Sarna (well respected professor of Jewish studies at Brandeis) about how it's more of the same nonsense, basically.

Yes, he's in the JNS article.

https://x.com/heidibachram/status/1850537688195109306?s=46

this elderly lady trying to get into (out of ?) the JCC in tears is heartbreaking

it’s blatantly obvious why they are holding the protest there… 😞

@EllaDisenchanted that moved me to tears last night and made it hard to sleep. I will be contacting the centre to see what can be done.

Thanks @stomachamelon ❤️