Anti-Semitism on the Rise

One thing that struck me in when I first traveled to Europe was how open people were about their dislike and disdain for Jews. I would stare slackjawed as people would throw out lines like "money grubbing Jews" and "filthy Jew" and the like. It was like a characature of 1950's WASPy country clubishness. Anyone who said something like that in the company of anyone I knew (or they knew) would quickly find themselves with few returned phone calls or social invitations. It was very strange. I haven't thought about it much and figured that it probably would have dissapated since I was there years ago. Apparently not.


The findings prompted the report's authors to warn of a "wave of hatred" against Jews.

The number of incidents increased to 594 last year, up by 31 per cent on the previous year.


What type of incidents are we talking about?


"Today's anti-Semitism is a wave of hatred, intimidation and abuse against British Jews, who are stupidly blamed and randomly attacked over international tensions for which they bear no responsibility."

Incidents last year include:

•
An Orthodox Jew punched in the face and almost pushed off a Tube platform by an Arab man who screamed: "Get back to Stamford Hill, I want to kill you all"
•
A Jewish man walking to synagogue with his two young sons suffered a broken leg after being punched and kicked by a white man shouting "f***ing Jew"
•
Seventy incidents of desecration and damage to synagogues, cemeteries, Jewish schools and private homes with attacks including swastikas daubed on walls
•
Savage assault of a 12-year-old Jewish girl Jasmine Kranat, who was beaten unconscious on a north London bus by two teenage girls who asked her first if she was Jewish.

The physical descriptions of perpetrators in 205 of the incidents show 96 were by white people, 28 by black people, 60 by Asians and 16 by Arabs. The report has been passed to ministers.


I don't really have a point here other than to say that Jews here get a far better welcome in even the most redneck backwater than they do in supposedly multicultural and cosmopolitan London.

Comments

Anna Venger said…
I knew anti-Semitism was on the rise in England, but these are horrible examples. No wonder it is so important to many Jews to have a land of their own.
7:58 PM
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