Jews in U.K. feel safer than those on continent

By Lloyd Levy

LONDON–This week has witnessed the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. There has been wall to wall coverage on British Television of the event, with a memorial service attended by Prince Charles, and film footage from the liberation itself.

Clearly “the powers that be” have suddenly realised the threat of resurgent anti Semitism in the UK. Having helped to generate the anti Semitism themselves, by their vicious anti Israel agenda, the media maybe now realise they have helped release an evil genie from the bottle. Certainly David Cameron the Prime Minister, does appear to realise the threat posed to Jews and the country at large, by religious bigotry imported from the Middle East. His attitude is a welcome change from the vile anti Semitism and anti Israel attitudes in some of the left wing political parties.

Certainly we currently feel safer in UK than for example the Jews in France or Sweden . Neverthless we remain quite anxious , and pessimistic for the future. Our great advantage in Britain is that we are an island, with some ability to monitor who comes in and out, if the political will is there to do so. I do feel that we now do have the political will in UK to face the threats. Whether that will be followed through after the forthcoming general election in May, remains to be seen.

In France, the “solidarity” march by world leaders was truly worrying. The front row had the Palestinian leader Abbas grinning like a Cheshire cat, only 2 place away from Angela Merkel herself. Also a representative of Turkey, in some people’s opinion one of the most truly anti semitic regimes on earth. What a slap in the face to the Jewish community. It certainly wasn’t a solidarity with Jews march, but on the contrary a solidarity with Islam march. There are now so many Muslims in France, that they can decisively influence the political discourse. The country is effectively a quasi- Muslim state, as indeed are a few other European States. In Britain the proportion is not yet quite so high.

What is so ironic about the situation in France, is that the French Revolution did liberate the Jews from their ghetto existence, and made them full citizens. The ghetto walls in conquered territories were literally knocked down. The French Jews have been very loyal citizens, to the extent that they largely turned their back on Dreyfus when he was accused of treason.  Herzl and other early Zionist leaders were damning in their criticism of French Jewry’s lack of interest in the Zionist enterprise. How ironic that the situation has changed so dramatically.

What one needs to realise however, is that most of the French Jews today are from North Africa, and not “original” French. I suspect that the “immigrant” Jews will be more ready to emigrate than the “original” Jews, but that is just my hypothesis. Although Israel is expecting a huge inflow of French, the fact is that they are moving to London also in large numbers.

I think the Jews in the “West” are in for a difficult period of time. Political and economic threats are approaching, due to the unraveling of the illiberal and elitist European Union experiment, and the man in the street is starting to push back. In uncertain times, the Jewish situation is always precarious.

I would recommend a recent book by the British author Howard Jacobson called J which is a fictional account of life in Britain after the Jewish population have all been wiped out by a social media generated holocaust. It is an interesting book, and does perhaps illustrate the fears of a gifted Jewish writer. Also, if you wish to read more about the Dreyfus Affair  I recommend a recent historical novel by Robert Harris, called An Officer and a Spy .

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Levy is a freelance writer who divides his time between homes in England and Israel. Your comment may be posted in the space provided below or sent to lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com