Two incidents last night

[PurpleChrayn]

Still feeling shaken and just need to vent. Hope that’s ok.

Last night DH took DD (age 4) to Kabbalat Shabbat in shul — about a 20 minute walk through the suburbs. I stayed home with toddler DS.

On the way out after davening, they were set upon by a gang of young men on bikes yelling “free Palestine” as well as slurs. The CST guy who stands outside shul immediately called the police and they came but the lads had scarpered. DH and some other shul-goers who saw it gave statements.

DD was terrified, imaginably.

THEN, as they were walking towards home, a car pulled up beside them, and a girl very purposefully opened the back window and showed DH her T-shirt which had a map of Israel covered in a keffiyeh and some Arabic writing.

This comes after several other incidents over the past couple of years - in person and online. It’s getting to the point where staying in the UK is not looking like a particularly safe or appealing prospect.

Horrifying. So sorry to hear this news. Very troubling.

I'm so sorry, @PurpleChrayn. What horrible experiences, you and your family must be deeply traumatised.

I wish there was something I could do. How dare these people intimidate you like that! Who do they think they are?! Where do they think they are?!

Would you be able to consider another part of the UK? Somewhere outside a city? I don't blame you for wanting to leave, though.

I'm so sorry that happened, @PurpleChrayn

Thinking of you and hoping your DD is OK today.

Just sending you ❤️ @PurpleChrayn as I keep saying, you have a lot more support than you realise x

Thank you. Thankfully DD seems fine - she’s mentioned it a few times but isn’t visibly upset.

I think what scares me most is that it was young people, obviously emboldened by the current climate. The incident on the bus that happened last year also involved high school students.

Our plan is to move to Manchester within the next couple of years for better schools. There’s a bigger CST presence there, and (maybe?) safety in numbers.

I think the move is a good idea. The support for Palestine is a worry for many westerners now. Of course that's nothing compared to how the Jewish community feel. There's going to be civil unrest in this country soon. I'm not talking about the recent riots, although they do play a part. There is a destraction taking place and many in the west are falling into the trap.

This is awful...I'm so sorry. I just despair honestly.

I’m so so sorry OP

This, and so many other incidents, is why I find it hard to believe that the pro-Palestinian movement isn’t antisemitic. Because scratch the surface just the tiniest bit, of any given pro-Palestinian, and you’ll find it. It doesn’t take a lot IME. And I bet these same people who attacked your DH will say til they’re blue in the face they’re not antisemitic. And they believe it too

There is a march against antisemitism in London on September 6th. I’m stewarding. I’m not Jewish but I feel I NEED to do something to help. Please do check out the March!

Thank you for sharing this. I'm rather heavily involved in elderly care at the moment, many miles from London. I've just made a donation to the Campaign Against Antisemitism instead.

The awful thing to confess is that I'm partly relieved to be unable to attend. London absolutely terrifies me at the moment, and I'm not Jewish either!

Good on you for stewarding, and I hope all goes well. 💗

I’ve just come back from Liverpool and there was a huge anti-Jewish sentiment there. Late at night back to a hotel I passed lots of young people at bars and one girl was walking a long at midnight with a free Palestine poster. It just seemed outrageous and out of context. In my opinion it was nothing to do with freeing Palestine but more about her hate for Israel and intimidating Jews. I’ve said it before, the way the free Palestine movement is used and how they conflate the flag and those words, it just brings terror.

I'm so sorry! What horrible people, especially when there is a small child present.

It’s Liverpool where I am.

Hugely anti-Israel/antisemitic.

It MUST be antisemitism because although my DH is Israeli, there’s nothing to mark him out as that. He just looks generically Jewish - a knitted kippah and tzitziyot, white shirt and chinos. And yet he gets abuse.

DS turns three early next year and I’m terrified of putting him in a kippah publicly.

See I walk around with my 11 year old ds with a kippa and we get nothing, although my city has a reputation of being very anti Israel. Once or twice with my husband and other adults we got some comments. Mostly things like free palestine, which is fine (just why are they shouting it at us?) I kind of feel that with kids people are more restrained.

Theres always baseball caps.

We got the funniest comment in Manchester recently - in a taxi with a muslim driver, stopped at red light, and a white (British) man says loudly, something like, Look at that, a Jew and. Muslim together!

is it fine to have “Free Palestine” shouted at you? To me it’s an incitement. Because what most people believe when they say that is that Israel shouldn’t exist.

Not trying to start an argument. It’s all just exhausting.

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deleting extra post

For reason that got posted 3 times so I’m deleting two of them.

I'm so sorry to see this. We've chatted before so you know my daughter was harassed at school a couple of times for being Jewish - not Israeli, Jewish. And I don't feel safe being visibly Jewish on my own or with the kids. We aren't religious so I have options but I keep looking at my Jewish star necklace I used to wear regularly and getting upset - both because it's so awful and also because I'm being a coward. Boldly walking around as a visibly Jewish person just now takes an immense amount of inner strength which is so depressing I don't even know what to say.

I really hope you and your family are okay today - any chance you could speed up the move?

Of course its not fine, but its not necessarily a hateful statement. I would like to see Palestinians free of the hateful death cult of Hamas. Free to live a peaceful life.

But, as I said, its not ok to shout it at someone visibly Jewish.

🫂🫂🫂 I’m so sorry purplechrayne, that’s horrible 😞
purplethistle it’s not cowardly; safety first, always. History tells you that. Everyone has to make their own assessment in their own circumstances.

@PurpleChrayn
Just had this by email from CAA.

"Many of you would have seen disturbing footage of a woman appearing to drive past a group of Jewish people – including young children – swearing and shouting “Free Palestine” whilst giving them the middle finger. It is understood to have taken place last week on Leicester Road in Salford.

If you have information about this incident, please contact us at [email protected] or Greater Manchester Police."

Sounds similar to your family's horrible experience

@ImGoingUpstairsToTakeOffMyHat are you still stewarding tomorrow? I am too but there is a tube strike and I am trying to work out logistics!!