Despite its reputation for tolerance, Britain has long nurtured antisemitism — from Shakespeare to the BBC, from street protests to state policy — and today it’s resurfacing with alarming intensity.
In 1835, Daniel O’Connell, the Irish Roman Catholic leader, attacked Disraeli in the House of Commons. In the course of his unrestrained invective, he referred to Disraeli’s Jewish ancestry. Disraeli replied, ‘Yes, I am a Jew, and while the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
No need to spend time and energy castigating anti-semitic Britain. When the Muslims take over the UK they will deal with the Hamas sympathizers and the Palestinian stooges that gather in pubs which shall be outlawed. And Israeli warplanes can take out British nukes the way they took out Iranian ones. As Roy Orbison wrote, "it's over, it's over...."
It will take a little while for the UK to get up to Israel’s near quarter Muslim population. A nation that recently had over a thousand of its people murdered by fanatics can hardly be sneering at a nation that has not and likely never will.
Israel was not attacked by its Arab Muslim population but by self-described Palestinian Muslims living in Gaza which Israel did not and does not govern. Britain, on the other hand, is already behaving like a dhimmi population, bending ass over as much as it can to accommodate its already sizeable and politically muscular Muslim population. Wait until the latter are riding high. Grooming gangs and no go zones will seem like a distant romantic past.
And the demographics of the Jew-haters is not positive. Older people in my generation carry great sympathy for Jews due to exposure to Holocaust education and Holocaust survivors. My daughter's generation dismisses all that. The scowl that came over her face when we last talked about it betrayed the brainwashing she has received in college. Her generation is about to take power in Britain and all of Europe, including the US. The rapid Islamization of the West puts advanced nuclear capability in the hands of radicals who will not hesitate to use it, with or without Iran's nukes.
Yes. And. You may find the work of Robert Spencer of value and worth sharing to others. He has worked for over 20 years to investigate and explain exactly how the jihad is being unleashed upon and within all Western/Democratic nations especially. He has written quite a few books. He has a podcast Jihad Watch. And he has just released his new book "Antisemitism: History and Myth".
Very well made point Mary. Our generation (I’m Gen X) knew actual Holocaust survivors and many of us have visited the camps of horror. We had a genuine education, based in reality & delivered by conservative leaning, deep thinking scholars. Sadly most of the youth today get their education from a left wing teacher or worse, from a woke sound bite or ignorant influencer’s latest TikTok reel. They’ve also lived such sheltered lives that the horrors of history have become too far removed to actually appreciate.
Mary fear not. NATO protocols will not countenance “leave behind” nuclear weapons in former western culture nations that convert to Islam and sharia law. Just WON’T happen.
The British government is already so pliable to the Islamists, so eager to appoint them to powerful positions, so afraid to confront or combat them, the existing NATO government with its nuclear armed submarine capability will soon be under Islamic control - with Islamofascists as "British" Defense ministers and even Prime Minister. It won't be a revolution like Stalin, but an infestation to positions of power. Instead of a "strongly worded statement" they will make nuclear threats and have the credibility to carry them out. They don't have to actually launch anything to turn our world upside down. 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
Hi Mary: I apologize for having failed to allay your fears. Regarding NATO and existing nuclear capabilities within any member state, there are contingencies in place for removal of nuclear weapons (and other related materiel) based upon the core NATO Alliance Members entry agreements. You may recall that in the 1950s-1960s, there were concerns about UK infiltration by Russia sympathizers (and worse). NATO and non-NATO nuclear weapons "guardianship" by other-than-UK-personnel was firmly in place. Anyone in any future Islamic Republic of <former NATO Member> would find themselves ill-prepared to retain said WMD. In the case of an Islamic Republic of the United Kingdom, storage sites in England, Wales, Scotland, or <fill in the blanks>, there are contingencies to remove the weapons gradually or abruptly OR to destroy them on site. Scenarios known as "Broken Arrows" are redundantly addressed by the US Department of Defense. Perhaps the Islamic Republic of Türkiye has escaped your awareness. As a NATO member state, it has recently been "re-educated" about how its flirtations with Russia and the broader BRICS nations could jeopardize its territorial integrity. As the ultimate guarantor of NATO nuclear weapons, the United States Department of Defense would be the final word on how those materials would exit either an Islamic Republic of the United Kingdom or of Türkiye. Please take this off your worries list. You need to focus upon learning Israeli Krav Maga to decrease your fearfulness, my friend.
ps Britain is ALSO home ta THREE of the most outspoken pro-Israel/pro-jooish advocates in the whirled (we have none quite like them here in the US of Eh?... tho' kindly correct me if I'm missin' some great "aura-teurs" here)...
Britain is blessed with:
Melanie Phillips
Natasha Hausdorff
Douglas Murray
plus they speak so euphoniously (bein' a fan of da Queens English) that I'm just gobsmacked by the beauty that accompanies their dang eloquence! Bless 'em all!
The children of the Holocaust, and their grandchildren, were, are, the survivors' revenge against the Nazis.
The Israelis who fight for their survival, and who, pretending to be cynical but actually traumatized by the stresses of war, continue to push their limits, and to advance the state of the art in the sciences, the life sciences, technology, engineering, and the state of the art in the arts; in music, dance, who, like Gal Gadot, dare to act as Wonder Woman, who dare to compete in Eurovision, 47 times and counting, winning in '78, '79, '89, and 2018.... The Israelis do not seek revenge against the Arabs. They seek peace. The Treaty with Egypt may be a cold peace, but it is great for Egypt and good for Israel. The Treaty with Jordan, the Abraham Accords, the possible next Abraham Accords with the "Emirate of Hebron....
Israel didn't deprive the Arabs of a state in UN Partitioned "Palestine" in 1948. Egypt occupied Sinai and Gaza and Jordan occupied what became known as the West Bank. The Jews created a nation in their homeland. The Arabs who fled became refugees 77 years ago. Their children and grandchildren still consider themselves to be refugees.
The Survivors of the Holocaust were refugees until the early 1950's. But they became citizens of various countries in Europe, the Americas, and, of course, Israel. Their children and their grandchildren are not Refugees. They do not live in Refugee Camps. They do not spend their time plotting to kill the children, grandchildren, and great-gandchildren of Nazis, or neo-Nazis. They do not raise their children to be martyrs, to die with bombs strapped to their chests, killing other children.
I agree, there is anti semitism in Britain. It’s unforgivable! The useless idiots that march for Palestine and the appalling Labour Party carry it in their veins. What is happening is horrendous. However the silent majority are disgusted by this. We are supportive of the Jewish people. Take a look at what happened during the last 2 Eurovision Song Contests. The Brits gave all their votes to Israel. We are appalled with what is happening. Our elites and Government are vile! We are doing everything to fight against them. My mantra is “Long Live Israel and the Jewish people”
If you want any proof that Britain is antisemitic, look no further than the painter Solomon J. Solomon. You've probably never heard of him. He was one of the great 19th century academic painters but he was written out of art history partly because his work did not contribute to Modernism. He taught at the Royal Academy and a book he wrote, _The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing_, is one of the seminal texts that taught our contemporary US East Coast atelier painters how to paint, since the knowledge had been purposefully buried and had to be retrieved archaeologically.
Last year I had the opportunity to go to the UK and in making plans, I investigated where in the UK I can see Solomon's work. It turns out that although he has work in a few UK museums, they are all in storage. There are a few pieces in, say, regional government offices but they're also out of view. The only piece accessible was in a Jewish gallery in London, a kind of ghetto for Jewish artists. It wasn't a strong piece so I never went on my trip.
In the beginning of Solomon's career, he made a mark for himself painting dramatic multifigure compositions of scenes from the Tanakh. While there have been Christian artists who have treated some of the same themes, Solomon's stand out for their matchless technique, their beauty, energy, muscular handling, and the way they bring the Tanakh alive. With the exceptions of Mark Rothko and Eva Hesse, I don't think there have been Jewish artists who have hit his bar before or since.
Criminal that the work of an artist of his caliber, particularly one who right now is so influential, is kept locked away.
If you were to look him up on Wikipedia, you would see that what they praise him for is his work during WWI towards the invention of camouflage. A great painter and what they value about him is camouflage.
Britain stood alone against Nazism until 1942. But the class system here was always AntiSemitic, even as Britain became multi-racial in the 1950’s, and there has been a revolving door between British Nazis and MI6, which I amongst others have now widely documented. But the British People themselves, lovely people actually.
This is not a correct representation of Shakespeare's Shylock. His depiction in The Merchant of Venice is nuanced; it reflects the pressures and antisemitism of the era that at end produced particular effects on Shylock as a man living his life while conducting the business he was allowed to and taking advantage of those who took advantage of him when push came to shove. The Christian characters are denoted as such and treated harshly by Shakespeare's depictions. It's far too easy to ignore all of that and see Shylock as a stereotyped caricature - which Christopher Marlowe did at the time - and much harder to read the play for its depth and other connotations emerging from that.
Jewish smooish. It IS a great risk for Jewish individuals/groups/organizations in particular circumstances to rise up and speak out. In other circumstances we are the most morally and ethically outspoken in Human History. Also, Jewish is a 'broad church'. There is Jewish and there is Jewish. The differences remind one of the 30,000 or so Xtian sects who claim self-righteously to be 'new' yet amongst those 30,000 or so sects.... the sects mostly deeply hate, Hate, HATE each other. We ARE all in this together. Wishing us all 'the Best of British' and a 'stiff upper lip'. And by the way.... Jewish Culture inclusive of and especially the 'religio' aspects is a great treasure for the benefit of All of Humanity. And The State of Israel is totally amazing, complex beyond anything, and phenomenally remarkable in goodness... For All of Humanity. Did I mention it is complex?:)
Yes there are different branches of Judaism in terms of religious observance but being Jewish is not just a religion— it’s a people, a culture , perhaps a race. A people.
I've begun as my norm to refer to the whole thing as Jewish Culture. That is A Culture. Not 'culture' as in Arts per se. The Jewish Culture is actually an Indigenous Culture complete with a location, a language, a creation story, with a LONG lineage of Elders, with a double lineage of Feminine and Masculine, with a real established history... and with Culural Practices. That last part has usually been labeled with that misleading word 'religion'. The 'religion' - although many don't practice and a large percentage of those people have very little idea or knowledge of what to practice how and when and under varying circumstances including periods of time. For example Tephilin is primarily for Men - daily. But not done on Shabbat nor on Yom Tov's. Each of those aspects may be argued about like any subject in life.... can be argued endlessly and often pointlessly or with the lowest point in mind ie 'to make a point' or 'to win a point'. The body of Cultural knowledge is extraordinary and illuminating. I aslo say that "There is not one thing in Jewish that is simple. Nothing. Not one thing". Jewish Cultural Practices definitely absolutely require at least a minimal amount of daily study.
I agree it is a culture. And that culture varies, depending on where you live, but . . . we have much in common and always recognize each other as "family."
Hi joshua - everything you wrote was true - you left out our national broadcaster - BBC's antisemitic rant from Glastonbury - however there is a positive side to the UK.
Talk Radio and GB News are both very pro Jewish and pro Israel.
Since the 1950's British television has broadcast the best of Jewish humour and culture (Till Death Do Us Part, The Rag Trade, the plays of Jack Rosenthal, Friday Night Dinner)
During WW2 Dame Myra Hess gave nonstop piano recitals to keep British spirits during wartime high.
Although in numbers small - British Jewish society is vibrant, successful and punches way above its height
I come from London's East End-(born in '49) - where a huge % of East European Jews settled - fleeing the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe. Where and when I grew up Jews and Gentiles were completely integrated - and continue to be so
“Israel is not viewed by progressive activists as the world’s embodiment of evil because of settlements or policies or any of the other red herrings that are thrown up to justify the hysterical condemnations. It is viewed as the embodiment of evil because Jews have traditionally been the empty vessel upon which humans have projected their sins — and the Jewish state is both the national embodiment of the Jewish people and the natural inheritor of centuries of projection and vilification of Jews.
Jews worldwide are not targeted because of Israel’s existence. On the contrary, Israel is targeted because of Jews’ existence. At a minimum, it is the Jewish people’s insistence on existing as a self-determined people that sets off the haters.
It is not, fundamentally, the existence or actions of Israel that lead to global condemnations and acts of hate against Jews around the world. No, we’ve got this exactly backward. It is the hatred of Jews around the world that leads to the military and rhetorical assaults against Israel. Global antisemitism is not a byproduct of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a byproduct of global antisemitism.”
This article is true, but misses an important point. Antisemitism died down in Britain after the war. It has revived due to the arrival of Islam.
There are, at most, four hundred thousand Jews in the UK (some estimates put it at less than three hundred thousand). There are four *million* Muslims, generally people who immigrated within a generation or two from countries where antisemitism is normalised (despite the absence of Jews). The Labour Party, which stopped being the party of the white working class some decades ago (the working class are too socially conservative, especially about immigration), is now dominated by Muslims. No mainland (i.e. non-Northern Ireland) British political party has been so dominated by one religious group for decades. It's deeply disturbing.
Muslim activists in the Labour Party are supported by a party elite dominated by rich, middle class professionals with backgrounds in highly woke sectors like law (particularly human rights law), HR and academia. The fact that Labour lost seats at the last election to "independent" Islamist candidates (actual Islamists!) and nearly lost several others, including those of at least two Cabinet ministers (surprise, surprise, two of the most vocally anti-Israel) is going to encourage them to lean further in to radical Muslim demands in the future.
We now have a de facto blasphemy law preventing burning the Qu'ran (but not the Bible or any other holy book) and are likely to get a wide-ranging Islamophobia law soon that will probably make this comment illegal. We already have a two-tier policing system (through selective enforcement of non-crime hate incidents and public order offences) that allows support for antisemitic terrorist groups, but not public opposition to said terrorist groups. It's insane.
I increasingly worry we are going to have to leave the country in the next ten years.
(Also, minor point: Dickens came to regret Fagin after he got to know more Jews. His final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, contains a more sympathetic Jewish character in Mr Riah.)
It's been my experience that antisemitism never went away in the White British culture after the war, it just later became sublimated into anti-Zionism, and millions of left-wing trade unionists who had never even met a Muslim (but grew up in working class households with communist ideas about Jew bankers) were happy to be antisemitic about Jewish businessmen etc. The language changed (careful to say nothing like the 1930s, after all, we're not Nazis) but the antisemitism was still there. I grew up in an entirely White working class community and prejudices about Jews being greedy and in control of the world etc were entirely normal.
The influx of Muslims from the 60s onwards to work in factories here had very little immediate impact on British attitudes because they were actually excluded from the political process, due to plain old racism, and had little imput into the unions and political parties. They were encouraged to vote Labour, but otherwise marginalised.
The anti-racism movements of the 70s and 80s encouraged Muslims to join politics, but always as secular activists. Muslims found a very receptive ear for Israel-hatred inside the British left, they didn't need to persuade many people. If I had to date the moment when British Muslims spoke AS Muslims, it was the Salman Rushdie fatwa, when we first saw the power of a religious "British Muslim view".
Your readers may benefit from awareness that the US has already invoked the 1951 Greenland Defense agreement and any access to the northern tier of Russia does not require any Western European inputs or resources. Truly the sun has set on the British empire as well as the republic of France. The evolution of the Islamic Republics of England and of France will be monitored by the UNITED STATES from low earth orbit. No need to engage with governments unable to sustain their western civilization roots.
In 1835, Daniel O’Connell, the Irish Roman Catholic leader, attacked Disraeli in the House of Commons. In the course of his unrestrained invective, he referred to Disraeli’s Jewish ancestry. Disraeli replied, ‘Yes, I am a Jew, and while the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
No need to spend time and energy castigating anti-semitic Britain. When the Muslims take over the UK they will deal with the Hamas sympathizers and the Palestinian stooges that gather in pubs which shall be outlawed. And Israeli warplanes can take out British nukes the way they took out Iranian ones. As Roy Orbison wrote, "it's over, it's over...."
It will take a little while for the UK to get up to Israel’s near quarter Muslim population. A nation that recently had over a thousand of its people murdered by fanatics can hardly be sneering at a nation that has not and likely never will.
Israel was not attacked by its Arab Muslim population but by self-described Palestinian Muslims living in Gaza which Israel did not and does not govern. Britain, on the other hand, is already behaving like a dhimmi population, bending ass over as much as it can to accommodate its already sizeable and politically muscular Muslim population. Wait until the latter are riding high. Grooming gangs and no go zones will seem like a distant romantic past.
Ah, so the Muslims that live in Isreal are “good ones”. Funny that.
Educate yourself by watching You Tube video titled ‘best speech by Israeli diplomat Oslo 2009’ .. the guy is George Deek a palestinian christian.
A second informative You Tube video is Rawan Osman ‘from hating Israel to knowing the truth’ .. an Arab woman born to Syrianand Lebanese parents.
Your country sucks. It will soon no longer be part of the free world. Get used to sharia law.
Please move closer to the border, you are one casualty statistic who won’t be missed.
And the demographics of the Jew-haters is not positive. Older people in my generation carry great sympathy for Jews due to exposure to Holocaust education and Holocaust survivors. My daughter's generation dismisses all that. The scowl that came over her face when we last talked about it betrayed the brainwashing she has received in college. Her generation is about to take power in Britain and all of Europe, including the US. The rapid Islamization of the West puts advanced nuclear capability in the hands of radicals who will not hesitate to use it, with or without Iran's nukes.
I have experienced exactly the same Mary, it’s so depressing and surprising
Yes. And. You may find the work of Robert Spencer of value and worth sharing to others. He has worked for over 20 years to investigate and explain exactly how the jihad is being unleashed upon and within all Western/Democratic nations especially. He has written quite a few books. He has a podcast Jihad Watch. And he has just released his new book "Antisemitism: History and Myth".
Very well made point Mary. Our generation (I’m Gen X) knew actual Holocaust survivors and many of us have visited the camps of horror. We had a genuine education, based in reality & delivered by conservative leaning, deep thinking scholars. Sadly most of the youth today get their education from a left wing teacher or worse, from a woke sound bite or ignorant influencer’s latest TikTok reel. They’ve also lived such sheltered lives that the horrors of history have become too far removed to actually appreciate.
Mary fear not. NATO protocols will not countenance “leave behind” nuclear weapons in former western culture nations that convert to Islam and sharia law. Just WON’T happen.
Please don’t spend any time handwringing over this concern.
The British government is already so pliable to the Islamists, so eager to appoint them to powerful positions, so afraid to confront or combat them, the existing NATO government with its nuclear armed submarine capability will soon be under Islamic control - with Islamofascists as "British" Defense ministers and even Prime Minister. It won't be a revolution like Stalin, but an infestation to positions of power. Instead of a "strongly worded statement" they will make nuclear threats and have the credibility to carry them out. They don't have to actually launch anything to turn our world upside down. 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
Hi Mary: I apologize for having failed to allay your fears. Regarding NATO and existing nuclear capabilities within any member state, there are contingencies in place for removal of nuclear weapons (and other related materiel) based upon the core NATO Alliance Members entry agreements. You may recall that in the 1950s-1960s, there were concerns about UK infiltration by Russia sympathizers (and worse). NATO and non-NATO nuclear weapons "guardianship" by other-than-UK-personnel was firmly in place. Anyone in any future Islamic Republic of <former NATO Member> would find themselves ill-prepared to retain said WMD. In the case of an Islamic Republic of the United Kingdom, storage sites in England, Wales, Scotland, or <fill in the blanks>, there are contingencies to remove the weapons gradually or abruptly OR to destroy them on site. Scenarios known as "Broken Arrows" are redundantly addressed by the US Department of Defense. Perhaps the Islamic Republic of Türkiye has escaped your awareness. As a NATO member state, it has recently been "re-educated" about how its flirtations with Russia and the broader BRICS nations could jeopardize its territorial integrity. As the ultimate guarantor of NATO nuclear weapons, the United States Department of Defense would be the final word on how those materials would exit either an Islamic Republic of the United Kingdom or of Türkiye. Please take this off your worries list. You need to focus upon learning Israeli Krav Maga to decrease your fearfulness, my friend.
ps Britain is ALSO home ta THREE of the most outspoken pro-Israel/pro-jooish advocates in the whirled (we have none quite like them here in the US of Eh?... tho' kindly correct me if I'm missin' some great "aura-teurs" here)...
Britain is blessed with:
Melanie Phillips
Natasha Hausdorff
Douglas Murray
plus they speak so euphoniously (bein' a fan of da Queens English) that I'm just gobsmacked by the beauty that accompanies their dang eloquence! Bless 'em all!
The children of the Holocaust, and their grandchildren, were, are, the survivors' revenge against the Nazis.
The Israelis who fight for their survival, and who, pretending to be cynical but actually traumatized by the stresses of war, continue to push their limits, and to advance the state of the art in the sciences, the life sciences, technology, engineering, and the state of the art in the arts; in music, dance, who, like Gal Gadot, dare to act as Wonder Woman, who dare to compete in Eurovision, 47 times and counting, winning in '78, '79, '89, and 2018.... The Israelis do not seek revenge against the Arabs. They seek peace. The Treaty with Egypt may be a cold peace, but it is great for Egypt and good for Israel. The Treaty with Jordan, the Abraham Accords, the possible next Abraham Accords with the "Emirate of Hebron....
Israel didn't deprive the Arabs of a state in UN Partitioned "Palestine" in 1948. Egypt occupied Sinai and Gaza and Jordan occupied what became known as the West Bank. The Jews created a nation in their homeland. The Arabs who fled became refugees 77 years ago. Their children and grandchildren still consider themselves to be refugees.
The Survivors of the Holocaust were refugees until the early 1950's. But they became citizens of various countries in Europe, the Americas, and, of course, Israel. Their children and their grandchildren are not Refugees. They do not live in Refugee Camps. They do not spend their time plotting to kill the children, grandchildren, and great-gandchildren of Nazis, or neo-Nazis. They do not raise their children to be martyrs, to die with bombs strapped to their chests, killing other children.
And I thought Ireland was bad.
I agree, there is anti semitism in Britain. It’s unforgivable! The useless idiots that march for Palestine and the appalling Labour Party carry it in their veins. What is happening is horrendous. However the silent majority are disgusted by this. We are supportive of the Jewish people. Take a look at what happened during the last 2 Eurovision Song Contests. The Brits gave all their votes to Israel. We are appalled with what is happening. Our elites and Government are vile! We are doing everything to fight against them. My mantra is “Long Live Israel and the Jewish people”
Thank you.
If you want any proof that Britain is antisemitic, look no further than the painter Solomon J. Solomon. You've probably never heard of him. He was one of the great 19th century academic painters but he was written out of art history partly because his work did not contribute to Modernism. He taught at the Royal Academy and a book he wrote, _The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing_, is one of the seminal texts that taught our contemporary US East Coast atelier painters how to paint, since the knowledge had been purposefully buried and had to be retrieved archaeologically.
Last year I had the opportunity to go to the UK and in making plans, I investigated where in the UK I can see Solomon's work. It turns out that although he has work in a few UK museums, they are all in storage. There are a few pieces in, say, regional government offices but they're also out of view. The only piece accessible was in a Jewish gallery in London, a kind of ghetto for Jewish artists. It wasn't a strong piece so I never went on my trip.
In the beginning of Solomon's career, he made a mark for himself painting dramatic multifigure compositions of scenes from the Tanakh. While there have been Christian artists who have treated some of the same themes, Solomon's stand out for their matchless technique, their beauty, energy, muscular handling, and the way they bring the Tanakh alive. With the exceptions of Mark Rothko and Eva Hesse, I don't think there have been Jewish artists who have hit his bar before or since.
Criminal that the work of an artist of his caliber, particularly one who right now is so influential, is kept locked away.
If you were to look him up on Wikipedia, you would see that what they praise him for is his work during WWI towards the invention of camouflage. A great painter and what they value about him is camouflage.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=solomon+j.+solomon+paintings&title=Special%3AMediaSearch&type=image
Britain stood alone against Nazism until 1942. But the class system here was always AntiSemitic, even as Britain became multi-racial in the 1950’s, and there has been a revolving door between British Nazis and MI6, which I amongst others have now widely documented. But the British People themselves, lovely people actually.
This is not a correct representation of Shakespeare's Shylock. His depiction in The Merchant of Venice is nuanced; it reflects the pressures and antisemitism of the era that at end produced particular effects on Shylock as a man living his life while conducting the business he was allowed to and taking advantage of those who took advantage of him when push came to shove. The Christian characters are denoted as such and treated harshly by Shakespeare's depictions. It's far too easy to ignore all of that and see Shylock as a stereotyped caricature - which Christopher Marlowe did at the time - and much harder to read the play for its depth and other connotations emerging from that.
I wonder what the Prime Minister’s wife has to say about all this. After all, isn’t she Jewish?
Jewish smooish. It IS a great risk for Jewish individuals/groups/organizations in particular circumstances to rise up and speak out. In other circumstances we are the most morally and ethically outspoken in Human History. Also, Jewish is a 'broad church'. There is Jewish and there is Jewish. The differences remind one of the 30,000 or so Xtian sects who claim self-righteously to be 'new' yet amongst those 30,000 or so sects.... the sects mostly deeply hate, Hate, HATE each other. We ARE all in this together. Wishing us all 'the Best of British' and a 'stiff upper lip'. And by the way.... Jewish Culture inclusive of and especially the 'religio' aspects is a great treasure for the benefit of All of Humanity. And The State of Israel is totally amazing, complex beyond anything, and phenomenally remarkable in goodness... For All of Humanity. Did I mention it is complex?:)
Yes there are different branches of Judaism in terms of religious observance but being Jewish is not just a religion— it’s a people, a culture , perhaps a race. A people.
I've begun as my norm to refer to the whole thing as Jewish Culture. That is A Culture. Not 'culture' as in Arts per se. The Jewish Culture is actually an Indigenous Culture complete with a location, a language, a creation story, with a LONG lineage of Elders, with a double lineage of Feminine and Masculine, with a real established history... and with Culural Practices. That last part has usually been labeled with that misleading word 'religion'. The 'religion' - although many don't practice and a large percentage of those people have very little idea or knowledge of what to practice how and when and under varying circumstances including periods of time. For example Tephilin is primarily for Men - daily. But not done on Shabbat nor on Yom Tov's. Each of those aspects may be argued about like any subject in life.... can be argued endlessly and often pointlessly or with the lowest point in mind ie 'to make a point' or 'to win a point'. The body of Cultural knowledge is extraordinary and illuminating. I aslo say that "There is not one thing in Jewish that is simple. Nothing. Not one thing". Jewish Cultural Practices definitely absolutely require at least a minimal amount of daily study.
I agree it is a culture. And that culture varies, depending on where you live, but . . . we have much in common and always recognize each other as "family."
Hi joshua - everything you wrote was true - you left out our national broadcaster - BBC's antisemitic rant from Glastonbury - however there is a positive side to the UK.
Talk Radio and GB News are both very pro Jewish and pro Israel.
Since the 1950's British television has broadcast the best of Jewish humour and culture (Till Death Do Us Part, The Rag Trade, the plays of Jack Rosenthal, Friday Night Dinner)
During WW2 Dame Myra Hess gave nonstop piano recitals to keep British spirits during wartime high.
Although in numbers small - British Jewish society is vibrant, successful and punches way above its height
I come from London's East End-(born in '49) - where a huge % of East European Jews settled - fleeing the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe. Where and when I grew up Jews and Gentiles were completely integrated - and continue to be so
BTW Love the quote (Gil Press) from Disraeli !
Pat Johnson, substack:
“Israel is not viewed by progressive activists as the world’s embodiment of evil because of settlements or policies or any of the other red herrings that are thrown up to justify the hysterical condemnations. It is viewed as the embodiment of evil because Jews have traditionally been the empty vessel upon which humans have projected their sins — and the Jewish state is both the national embodiment of the Jewish people and the natural inheritor of centuries of projection and vilification of Jews.
Jews worldwide are not targeted because of Israel’s existence. On the contrary, Israel is targeted because of Jews’ existence. At a minimum, it is the Jewish people’s insistence on existing as a self-determined people that sets off the haters.
It is not, fundamentally, the existence or actions of Israel that lead to global condemnations and acts of hate against Jews around the world. No, we’ve got this exactly backward. It is the hatred of Jews around the world that leads to the military and rhetorical assaults against Israel. Global antisemitism is not a byproduct of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a byproduct of global antisemitism.”
I agree and that's exactly why Israel has to exist, to defend and care for us.
This article is true, but misses an important point. Antisemitism died down in Britain after the war. It has revived due to the arrival of Islam.
There are, at most, four hundred thousand Jews in the UK (some estimates put it at less than three hundred thousand). There are four *million* Muslims, generally people who immigrated within a generation or two from countries where antisemitism is normalised (despite the absence of Jews). The Labour Party, which stopped being the party of the white working class some decades ago (the working class are too socially conservative, especially about immigration), is now dominated by Muslims. No mainland (i.e. non-Northern Ireland) British political party has been so dominated by one religious group for decades. It's deeply disturbing.
Muslim activists in the Labour Party are supported by a party elite dominated by rich, middle class professionals with backgrounds in highly woke sectors like law (particularly human rights law), HR and academia. The fact that Labour lost seats at the last election to "independent" Islamist candidates (actual Islamists!) and nearly lost several others, including those of at least two Cabinet ministers (surprise, surprise, two of the most vocally anti-Israel) is going to encourage them to lean further in to radical Muslim demands in the future.
We now have a de facto blasphemy law preventing burning the Qu'ran (but not the Bible or any other holy book) and are likely to get a wide-ranging Islamophobia law soon that will probably make this comment illegal. We already have a two-tier policing system (through selective enforcement of non-crime hate incidents and public order offences) that allows support for antisemitic terrorist groups, but not public opposition to said terrorist groups. It's insane.
I increasingly worry we are going to have to leave the country in the next ten years.
(Also, minor point: Dickens came to regret Fagin after he got to know more Jews. His final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, contains a more sympathetic Jewish character in Mr Riah.)
It's been my experience that antisemitism never went away in the White British culture after the war, it just later became sublimated into anti-Zionism, and millions of left-wing trade unionists who had never even met a Muslim (but grew up in working class households with communist ideas about Jew bankers) were happy to be antisemitic about Jewish businessmen etc. The language changed (careful to say nothing like the 1930s, after all, we're not Nazis) but the antisemitism was still there. I grew up in an entirely White working class community and prejudices about Jews being greedy and in control of the world etc were entirely normal.
The influx of Muslims from the 60s onwards to work in factories here had very little immediate impact on British attitudes because they were actually excluded from the political process, due to plain old racism, and had little imput into the unions and political parties. They were encouraged to vote Labour, but otherwise marginalised.
The anti-racism movements of the 70s and 80s encouraged Muslims to join politics, but always as secular activists. Muslims found a very receptive ear for Israel-hatred inside the British left, they didn't need to persuade many people. If I had to date the moment when British Muslims spoke AS Muslims, it was the Salman Rushdie fatwa, when we first saw the power of a religious "British Muslim view".
Well-said!
Your readers may benefit from awareness that the US has already invoked the 1951 Greenland Defense agreement and any access to the northern tier of Russia does not require any Western European inputs or resources. Truly the sun has set on the British empire as well as the republic of France. The evolution of the Islamic Republics of England and of France will be monitored by the UNITED STATES from low earth orbit. No need to engage with governments unable to sustain their western civilization roots.
Wow. Sad really.