It is likely that many people here are unaware of the threats against Jewish schools, of the need for police guard to protect the children there, of the targeting of synagogues and of the vitriol posted on social media against individuals and the Jewish, and Israeli, community in general. It is unsurprising but sad that many Jews who feared or have suffered have fled what was their home-land.
Anti-Semitism has been simmering, unchecked, in many hidden quarters of Britain for decades or more, and the current furore over attitudes in the Labour Party is like the eruption of a nasty boil that needs to be lanced: at last the subject of prejudice and racism towards an ancient ethnic and religious group is, as a result of comments by members of the Labour Party and reaction to them, headline news. The abuse needs to be recognised, acknowledged as being unacceptable, and checked.
The focus currently is on one political party, but the problem of anti-Semitism goes far beyond Labour, and far beyond Britain.
As I hear and read about what, recently, has been said as joke or insult, I feel bewildered that men and women still can be so uncaring about the feelings of others. Every Jew in Britain is likely to feel hurt, even humiliation, that the community that is the centre of their lives is the focus of attention and discussion in the way that it is. While it is good that the truth about anti-Semitism is being exposed, the way it is being revealed and how it is being addressed must be painful in the extreme to those who are at the heart of the issue. The poison in the boil is coming to a head.
It seems that Jews are being judged, by the anti-Semites, not for who or what they are individually, but for being part of the Jewish collective. Their human attributes, what they give to the UK, their gifts and skills are ignored as they are labelled by these ones, “Jew”. It reminds me of the experience of many slaves in America and elsewhere, forced to be stripped of individuality, dignity and acknowledgement, and of the many Liverpudlians who – until the truth came out – were branded as drunken troublemakers who precipitated the tragedy of Hillsborough. So often judgment is narrow-minded, destructive, and wrong.
History has been cruel to the Jewish people, and I am ashamed that some of my fellow-countrymen and women are perpetuating their prejudice, privately and publicly. Each of us is a person who is unique: whether you are Jewish, Muslim, atheist or Christian, you deserve to be honoured for your talents and strengths regardless of your background – and criticism, if it is deserved, should be fair and justified.
As the furore over ant-Semitism in the Labour Party increases, please send your love to those who suffer – certainly the Jewish community in Britain, and to the perpetrators also, who have so much to learn.
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