Benjamin Bell is a public policy and communications leader based in London. He was formerly a Political Adviser at CCHQ during David Cameron’s Coalition administration.
‘Death to all the Jews’ has been trending online in the UK. The National Solidarity March Against Antisemitism, organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and taking place this Sunday, is no parade of paranoia. Here’s why it’s so important that you join us, if you can.
The level of hate infecting the current discourse explains why “You’re so brave” has been a common refrain heard by Jews just for being Jews. It always is when antisemitism is roused from its light sleep.
Apparently I was brave for publicly revealing my Jewishness on LinkedIn. Rather than someone bringing his whole self to work, as HR departments insist we should.
Brave for penning ‘Bring them home’ on the remnants of posters vandalised for documenting kidnapped children. If promoting the return of terrified toddlers is brave rather than human we have a problem.
Brave for accepting my latest synagogue security call-up. It’s called being a Jew. Thou Shalt Do Your Stint. They’ve just never had to ask us so often.
Brave for enjoying my favourite falafel house in the week its windows were shattered by thugs. You try tasting it and staying away.
Brave for wearing my Star of David to a peaceful rally for the hostages, according to surprised Tube passengers. Twinkle, twinkle, little Star, how I wonder what a risk you are. In this age of identity and equality, somehow a religious symbol had me self-identifying as an unequal.
Brave in these cases may simply be a euphemism for stupid. Because for every antisemitic incident here before 7 October, there are 15 now.
It always starts with an atmosphere, before emboldened perpetrators graduate to physical harm. Those conditions for intimidation have gained oxygen from a minority of agitators on student campuses and protest marches who signally fail to practise what they preach about peace and freedom.
To be clear: making Hitler comparisons in this debate is grotesquely offensive and plain wrong, and indulgence of Hamas is indulgence of raping women, dismembering children, and cooking babies. Please excuse the stark imagery, but never forgetting 7 October must mean never forgetting 7 October. Many want the world to forget. Don’t let them.
While recorded hate in the UK is rampant, mercifully we haven’t (yet) plumbed the depths seen abroad in recent weeks: Jews stabbed on their doorsteps in Lyon and Detroit; Jewish homes exposed by graffiti in Berlin and Paris; Jewish cemeteries torched in Vienna; an elderly Jew killed by a protester in Los Angeles; Jewish tourists murdered in Alexandria.
None of the victims were in Israel or involved in the conflict. All opportunistic Jew hate.
In that environment, drawing attention to ourselves may indeed be stupid. It seems thousands don’t mind because, despite that backdrop, sales of so-called Jew-ellery have quadrupled.
As for what’s really brave, I look to my family that arrived in the 1800s and, in particular, their next in line: my late grandmas.
Esther cycled across Berlin in 1938 as a young, female Jew. That was brave. You might say stupid. I’d certainly add inspiring. Norah was brave too. An abiding image of her is in British Army uniform as part of the Allied effort facing down the Nazis in North Africa.
These glorious, British, Jewish women, who gave much to their community and country, would be turning in their graves at what confronts their descendants today – and questioning what the battle of their generation was for.
One descendant in particular wants to know. My son went to bed last week asking: “Daddy, why does everyone hate us?”
Speaking of brave or stupid, as a four-year old boy he is both. But that’s beside the point. Neither at that age nor any age should he have to ask such a question. Not in a civilised society, and especially not with great-grandmas who almost a century ago were fighting for the right for British people – Jewish or otherwise – to be safe and free.
The Jewish contribution to national life reflects a people wanting to fit for the long term. No race or religion in this enlightened country should face hate.
Yet now the sirens of antisemitism are sounding. It is a lonely place to feel that those under threat are the ones who hear it. A pitch that Jews recognise from times past. We need other people to tune in too. Silence is more terrifying than golden right now.
This is a cry for the help of reasonable voices. The only side I ask that you take is against hate of all kinds wherever it emerges. Readers should refuse to tolerate intolerance, speak out against the growing threat to a tiny community and – for those able and available – join the National Solidarity March Against Antisemitism.
It should not be controversial for someone to write these words, nor for people to act upon them.
So, we Jews who refuse to cower but instead show ourselves with pride. Are we brave or stupid? A bit of both, perhaps, but fully defiant.
Those Stars of David. On they go. On they stay. Those Jews. On we go. I just hope we can stay.
Benjamin Bell is a public policy and communications leader based in London. He was formerly a Political Adviser at CCHQ during David Cameron’s Coalition administration.
‘Death to all the Jews’ has been trending online in the UK. The National Solidarity March Against Antisemitism, organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and taking place this Sunday, is no parade of paranoia. Here’s why it’s so important that you join us, if you can.
The level of hate infecting the current discourse explains why “You’re so brave” has been a common refrain heard by Jews just for being Jews. It always is when antisemitism is roused from its light sleep.
Apparently I was brave for publicly revealing my Jewishness on LinkedIn. Rather than someone bringing his whole self to work, as HR departments insist we should.
Brave for penning ‘Bring them home’ on the remnants of posters vandalised for documenting kidnapped children. If promoting the return of terrified toddlers is brave rather than human we have a problem.
Brave for accepting my latest synagogue security call-up. It’s called being a Jew. Thou Shalt Do Your Stint. They’ve just never had to ask us so often.
Brave for enjoying my favourite falafel house in the week its windows were shattered by thugs. You try tasting it and staying away.
Brave for wearing my Star of David to a peaceful rally for the hostages, according to surprised Tube passengers. Twinkle, twinkle, little Star, how I wonder what a risk you are. In this age of identity and equality, somehow a religious symbol had me self-identifying as an unequal.
Brave in these cases may simply be a euphemism for stupid. Because for every antisemitic incident here before 7 October, there are 15 now.
It always starts with an atmosphere, before emboldened perpetrators graduate to physical harm. Those conditions for intimidation have gained oxygen from a minority of agitators on student campuses and protest marches who signally fail to practise what they preach about peace and freedom.
To be clear: making Hitler comparisons in this debate is grotesquely offensive and plain wrong, and indulgence of Hamas is indulgence of raping women, dismembering children, and cooking babies. Please excuse the stark imagery, but never forgetting 7 October must mean never forgetting 7 October. Many want the world to forget. Don’t let them.
While recorded hate in the UK is rampant, mercifully we haven’t (yet) plumbed the depths seen abroad in recent weeks: Jews stabbed on their doorsteps in Lyon and Detroit; Jewish homes exposed by graffiti in Berlin and Paris; Jewish cemeteries torched in Vienna; an elderly Jew killed by a protester in Los Angeles; Jewish tourists murdered in Alexandria.
None of the victims were in Israel or involved in the conflict. All opportunistic Jew hate.
In that environment, drawing attention to ourselves may indeed be stupid. It seems thousands don’t mind because, despite that backdrop, sales of so-called Jew-ellery have quadrupled.
As for what’s really brave, I look to my family that arrived in the 1800s and, in particular, their next in line: my late grandmas.
Esther cycled across Berlin in 1938 as a young, female Jew. That was brave. You might say stupid. I’d certainly add inspiring. Norah was brave too. An abiding image of her is in British Army uniform as part of the Allied effort facing down the Nazis in North Africa.
These glorious, British, Jewish women, who gave much to their community and country, would be turning in their graves at what confronts their descendants today – and questioning what the battle of their generation was for.
One descendant in particular wants to know. My son went to bed last week asking: “Daddy, why does everyone hate us?”
Speaking of brave or stupid, as a four-year old boy he is both. But that’s beside the point. Neither at that age nor any age should he have to ask such a question. Not in a civilised society, and especially not with great-grandmas who almost a century ago were fighting for the right for British people – Jewish or otherwise – to be safe and free.
The Jewish contribution to national life reflects a people wanting to fit for the long term. No race or religion in this enlightened country should face hate.
Yet now the sirens of antisemitism are sounding. It is a lonely place to feel that those under threat are the ones who hear it. A pitch that Jews recognise from times past. We need other people to tune in too. Silence is more terrifying than golden right now.
This is a cry for the help of reasonable voices. The only side I ask that you take is against hate of all kinds wherever it emerges. Readers should refuse to tolerate intolerance, speak out against the growing threat to a tiny community and – for those able and available – join the National Solidarity March Against Antisemitism.
It should not be controversial for someone to write these words, nor for people to act upon them.
So, we Jews who refuse to cower but instead show ourselves with pride. Are we brave or stupid? A bit of both, perhaps, but fully defiant.
Those Stars of David. On they go. On they stay. Those Jews. On we go. I just hope we can stay.