Terror attack leads British Jews to wonder if it’s time to leave

3 hours ago 2

London: Three days after a terrorist attack on one of their synagogues, British Jews are talking about something they would have dismissed just a few years ago: leaving their country for somewhere safer.

Michael Cohen, 65, says he and his friends feel prejudice against Jews has reached levels he has never witnessed in a lifetime in England.

Britain’s Jewish community wave British and Israeli flags in London’s Trafalgar Square on Sunday.

“I’ve got many friends that are now thinking of leaving the UK because of the level of antisemitism,” he says. “I’m not at that stage yet because I believe that it will get sorted. But I’ve not seen the situation as bad as it is now.”

Cohen is one of thousands in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, London time, to commemorate the October 7 attack two years ago, when Hamas militants crossed into Israel, killed 1195 people, wounded many more and seized 250 hostages.

The crowd calls for the release of the remaining hostages taken that day. Hamas is listed in Australia and other countries as a terrorist group.

The attack on the Manchester synagogue hangs over the gathering because it has deepened the anxiety about the future of their community.

Tamar Hershko has lived in the UK for 20 years and used to avoid rallies because she felt they made no difference to those in power. She is at this one to show support for the hostages and their families.

“It is scary to be Jewish,” she says. “These days, when my daughters are wearing their uniforms for a Jewish school in the morning, it is something that is very scary.

“There have been clashes between children of other schools and our school in our neighbourhood, with antisemitic comments.

Tamar Hershko in Trafalgar Square on Sunday to support the hostages and their families.

“There are Jewish people who are considering moving to Israel. But you’ll hear it from both sides. You’ll hear people who’ll tell you they are considering leaving Israel.”

Mary Knight, a cleaner and artist, says she sees “filth” directed at British Jews on her social media accounts and is in Trafalgar Square to support them. She was raised a Catholic and is now agnostic.

Mary Knight joined the rally to support British Jews after seeing the “filth” directed at them on social media.

“The hostages should be freed and should never have been taken,” she says. “That was the start of this whole terrible series of events.”

There were no speeches on Sunday about the politics of the war in Gaza. Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, asks the gathering to remember the lives lost on October 7, 2023. Other speakers pray for an agreement on the peace deal put forward over the past week. This gathering is not about supporting one side or another in Israeli politics.

While members of the crowd say they do not support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conduct of the war, they would rather not talk politics.

“We have all got different political opinions on it, very mixed opinions,” says Carol Fejdman, who is here with her friends. “The one important thing to note is that even though there were problems before, it’s the massacre that set everything else off.

“Because what are they supposed to do, sit there and let our civilians all be killed and murdered and raped and burnt?

“What are we supposed to do? Stand there and let that happen? No. Whether it’s right that it’s gone on for such a long time, you’d have to speak to a lot more educated people than me.”

Judith Avrahampour, Carol and Michael Fejdman and Ilana Mocatta in Trafalgar Square on Sunday.

Fejdman is scornful of what she calls white, middle-class people who think they have the solutions for the Middle East.

“They’re like the people that I went to school with who called me a dirty Jew,” she says. “I see them sitting there with their flag saying ‘genocide’. They know nothing about what they’re talking about.”

She is speaking in Trafalgar Square one day after protesters rallied against Israel on this same pavement. The weekly protests have drawn thousands of people who say it is not antisemitic to criticise Netanyahu or his government over a war that is killing thousands of civilians, including children.

Even so, British Jews see the size of those protests and feel they are being targeted over decisions by the Israeli government. For many, the attack on the Manchester synagogue proved again that antisemitism can lead someone to kill.

An attendee wears a sticker to remember October 7, 2023 attacks.

British Muslims have also been subjected to hate. In the latest example, police are searching for two men who poured liquid and set it alight at the front of a mosque near Brighton. The attack burnt part of the building and a car parked outside.

The Jewish gathering on Sunday afternoon is patrolled by security officers with machineguns. Fortunately, there is no violence.

Judith Avrahampour, who has lived in England for 45 years, now thinks twice about telling people she came from Israel.

“I was in the hospital on Tuesday,” she says. “People asked me, ‘Where are you from?’ And I was a bit uncomfortable. I’m not sure I should say where, but I do say.”

The Jewish people have been in Britain for centuries and today number between 280,000 and 300,000. Will some leave?

“It’s a natural reaction to fear and to feeling unprotected,” says Ilana Mocatta. But she says it would be Europe’s loss.

“It’s part of our culture to assimilate – to keep our culture, but assimilate,” she says.

“I think that we fit it in here very nicely. Everywhere we go, we contribute more than our weight in people. Because that’s also part of our culture.”

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