Stoking or calming fears of British Jews


January 15, 2015
Sarah Benton

This posting has these items:
1) Institute for Jewish Policy Research: Researching antisemitism, recognises the anxiety and takes a serious look at what we know and how we know it ;
2) Haaretz: U.K. antisemitism report highlights disturbing trend – among British Jews, Anshel Pfeffer is shocked at the know-nothings who think our times are like the 1930s;
3) Times of Israel: British Jews reject ‘fortress Judaism’, Britain’s Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner rejects Netanyahu’s ‘come to Israel’, the CAA’s alarmism and the binary Jews are / are not safe in the UK;
4) Guardian:This UK antisemitism survey would have shocked my great uncle Alex, Hadley Freeman insists there is no connection to Israel / Palestine;
5) Guardian: Almost half of Britons hold antisemitic view, poll suggests, unquestioning report by Ben Quinn;


Several of the publications covering the reports on antisemitism in Britain chose to illustrate them with photos from the London rally organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and Board of Deputies (see Notes and Links below). In fact, the rally was poorly attended and, as the photos made clear, attracted those who thought opposing antisemitism in the UK was the same as waving flags for Israel. The one above was chosen by Ynet this week.

Researching antisemitism

By JPR / Institute for Jewish Policy Research
January 14, 2015

There is little question that many Jews in the UK feel rattled by murders at Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket in Paris. If anyone was in any doubt about the threat posed by Islamist extremism in Europe, the realities were laid bare by the attacks, and it is perhaps inevitable that Jews across Europe will feel less secure in their aftermath.

The fact that the attacks came just a few months after a significant spike in the number of antisemitic incidents was observed in the UK and across Europe in the context of the summer war in Gaza only adds to that sense of insecurity. Certainly, the temperature of debate has risen significantly in Jewish circles in recent months, and the future of European Jewry is being discussed in a way that was not the case before the summer.

The additional fact that a new organisation, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), exists in the British Jewish community, and has been particularly active in recent months, should be seen in this context. Its very existence, and the passion with which it has undertaken its work, reflect British Jewish communal discourse. By all accounts, in the organisation’s short life, it has successfully run rallies against antisemitism and gained access to the highest echelons of the British political establishment. Jews want opportunities to voice their concerns, and the CAA is providing an outlet.

However, unfortunately, the organisation’s survey about antisemitism is littered with flaws, and in the context of a clear need for accurate data on this topic, its work may even be rather irresponsible.

Its report is based on two surveys – one of Jews living in the UK, exploring their perceptions and experiences of antisemitism, and one of the general population of the UK, exploring its attitudes towards Jews.

In the first one, the data about Jewish attitudes are based on an open web survey that had very limited capacity to assess whether respondents were in any way representative of the British Jewish population. So the percentages quoted are of survey respondents, not of Jews in the UK. The findings might be representative of the Jewish community in some way, but it is at least equally likely that they are not. Unfortunately, due to quite basic methodological flaws and weaknesses, there is absolutely no way the researchers or any readers of the report can really know.

Because of this, the claim in the report, for example, that “more than half of all British Jews feel that antisemitism now echoes the 1930s” verges into irresponsible territory – it is an incendiary finding, and there is simply no way to ascertain whether or not it is accurate. Moreover, the very inclusion of such a question in the survey, which most credible scholars of the Holocaust utterly refute, was a dubious decision in and of itself, and raises issues about the organisers’ pre-existing hypotheses and assumptions. Professional social researchers build credible surveys and analyse the data with an open mind; the CAA survey falls short both in terms of its methodology and its analysis.

The second survey, conducted by YouGov, is much better – the results are certainly broadly representative of the UK population. The findings would have benefited significantly from greater contextualisation, both in terms of attitudes towards other minorities, and the inclusion of some positive statements about Jews rather than just negative ones, which would have helped to provide some balance and nuance. But the research makes a valuable contribution to knowledge. The inclusion of some context might also have altered the way in which the results were presented in the CAA report and press release, which included the rather sensationalist claim that almost half of British adults harbour some kind of antisemitic view.

A far more accurate and honest read of the YouGov data would highlight the fact that between 75% and 90% of people in Britain either do not hold antisemitic views or have no particular view of Jews either way, and only about 4% to 5% of people can be characterised as clearly antisemitic when looking at individual measures of antisemitism. This figure is similar to Pew data gathered in 2009 and 2014 which estimated the level of antisemitic attitudes at somewhere between 2% and 7%, and Anti-Defamation League data gathered in 2014 which, while also flawed, put it at 8%, and, more robustly, identified the UK as among the least antisemitic countries in the world. It is possible that the proportion has risen in light of the summer’s events in Gaza (and those interested should look out for the next results from the Pew Global Attitudes Survey), but the notion that it has risen to such a significant degree seems to be highly implausible.

Recent events, over the summer and in Paris, demand that we carefully and accurately monitor exactly what is going on in the UK and elsewhere. But to do so, we need to ensure that the work is undertaken by suitably qualified researchers, and analysed in a way that reflects the findings in their entirety and inevitable complexity. There should be no question whatsoever today that a threat to the Jewish community exists, but if we want the community or the government to assess it accurately and develop appropriate policy accordingly, we have to ensure that the data they have are as accurate as possible.

Antisemitism is a serious topic, and the claims that it is rising need to be taken seriously. Government officials need accurate data about it to inform policy. Legal authorities need accurate data about it to assess levels of discrimination. The police and security services need accurate data about it to minimise the chances of harassment, assault or murder. Jewish community leaders need accurate data about it to provide sound advice to community members. And British Jews in general need accurate data to make sound judgements about their future and the future of their families. If the CAA’s work achieves anything, let it be this: that there will be a new-found commitment to start researching and analysing this issue in a methodologically serious and analytically intelligent way, with a clear eye on the shaping of policy at all levels.



U.K. antisemitism report highlights disturbing trend – among British Jews

That over half of respondents compare the situation in Britain today with that of the 1930s shows a disconnect bordering on hysteria.

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz
January 14, 2015

The report published Wednesday by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) group is a very worrying document. It claims that nearly half of British citizens hold at least one antisemitic view, but more than what it tells us about the British perspective on Jews, it indicates a deep, perhaps inflated, feeling of insecurity among a section of British Jewry.

The report is based on two surveys . In the first, carried out by the respectable polling company YouGov, a sample of 3,411 British adults were asked to respond to seven statements regarding Jews by stating to what degree they believed or disbelieved the statements. The CAA deems each statement to be antisemitic — and this is the weakest point in the survey. Some of the statements are downright Judeophobic such as “in business, Jews are not as honest as most people.”

But take for example the statement that “Jews think they are better than other people.” Of course it’s not the thing that one should normally be caught saying in public – but is it antisemitic? For a start, many Jews do subscribe to the Jewish notion of “the chosen people,” and for that matter it’s not only Jews; members of many if not most nations, religions and ethnicities believe they are better than the others. That’s natural and normal national pride. Even if this view runs counter to liberal orthodoxy, believing that Jews think of themselves that way can certainly be a fair and honest assessment.

The same can be said of another of the survey’s statements: “Jews talk about the Holocaust too much in order to get sympathy.” That’s a rather nasty accusation but the fact is too many Jews, both political leaders in public appearances and ordinary Jews on social media, are often too quick to bring up the Holocaust in order to make a point. The sad truth is that many Jews have cheapened the memory of the Holocaust by using it in an inappropriate fashion. Holding that opinion doesn’t necessarily make you an antisemite.

There are other statements there which are wrong or offensive, but agreeing with them isn’t necessarily evidence of antisemitism. In their eagerness to prove a point, the CAA has created its own definition of antisemitism, which is more a reflection of what is impolite to say in public than what is actual bias against Jews. Another group with a different definition could conduct a similar survey and come up with radically different results.

The CAA is a very young organization set up this summer following accusations from part of British Jewry that the veteran establishment was slow and weak in its response to the wave of anti-Israel protests during the Gaza conflict and the related rise in antisemitic offences. While there certainly has to be vigilance against forms of Jew-hatred, the CAA seems to be over-diagnosing the illness.

This eagerness to see the antisemitism in Britain, which inarguably exists, as much more widespread than it really is, comes across in the second survey in the report, conducted directly by the organization among 2,230 British Jews. The survey was done over social media and though the CAA tried to widen its reach through the email lists of a number of large Jewish organizations, you don’t have to be a statistician to realize how such a sample is far from representative.

Putting methodology aside, the headline findings that 45 percent of British Jews feel that “Jews may not have a long-term future in Britain” and that they and their families are “threatened by Islamic extremism in Britain” should cause concern. But then, those are subjective feelings: What relation do they have to the actual situation on the ground?

The last finding in the survey is that 56 percent agree that “the recent rise in antisemitism in Britain has some echoes of the 1930s.” If the majority of British Jews and the authors of the CAA report actually believe that, then it’s hard to take anything they say about contemporary antisemitism in their home country seriously. If they honestly think that the situation in Britain today echoes the 1930s when Jews were still banned from a wide variety of clubs and associations, when a popular fascist party, supported by members of the nobility and popular newspapers, were marching in support of Hitler, when large parts of the British establishment were appeasing Nazi Germany and the government was resolutely opposed to allowing Jewish refugees of Nazism in to Britain, finally relenting in 1938 to allow 10,000 children to arrive — but not their parents who were to die in the Holocaust (that shameful aspect of the Kindertransport that is seldom mentioned) — and when the situation of Jews in other European countries at the time was so much worse, then not only are they woefully ignorant of recent Jewish history but have little concept of what real antisemitism is beyond the type they see online.

Jews are represented in Britain in numbers that are many times their proportion of the population in both Houses of Parliament, on the Sunday Times Rich List, in media, academia, professions and just about every walk of public life. To compare today’s Britain, for all its faults, with the Jews’ situation in 1930s exhibits a disconnect from reality which borders on hysteria. Since the methodology of the second survey is so unclear, we can but hope that this isn’t the majority view among British Jews, but even if it reflects the feelings of a significant minority, it proves that the real crisis is one of a lack of self-confidence among Jews. Antisemitism in Britain is a problem that must not be belittled and has to be treated with a serious and open-eyed attitude. This report is not a step in that direction.



British Jews reject ‘fortress Judaism’

By Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner [above], blog, Times of Israel
January 15, 2015

They banged pots and pans, booing and hissing from the windows of their homes, pelting the opposition with rotten vegetables and stones.

These British Jews, alongside their neighbours, defeated the Nazi-affiliated British Union of Fascists, who wanted to free the country of foreigners “be they Hebrew or any other form of alien”, dispersing their three thousand-strong rally. Jewish workers ensured the “Blackshirts” were the only aliens on British turf. The so-called Battle of Cable Street took place in 1936.

Yesterday, the Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed that more than half of Jews believe antisemitism in Britain now echoes that decade, the 1930s. The survey reported that almost half of Jews fear they have no future in Britain, while a quarter have thought about leaving the country.

The findings depict a Jewish community of fear and fatalism, but they worried me for another reason. They demonstrated a disconnect between a particular perception of Jewish life — and the lived experiences of most British Jews. I was not alone. Yesterday, British Jews publicly rejected the “Fortress Judaism” narrative and the self-definition of Jewish life through perceived danger and discrimination.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that although the existence of the Campaign Against Antisemitism reflects genuine concerns within the community — it was founded by activists last year — but its report “fell short in terms of its methodology and its analysis”. The Jewish Chronicle reported that the vast majority of Jews, in fact, had not considered leaving Britain. Surveys like this ultimately speak to far broader issues within British Jewry. They demand a binary interpretation of events: you either do or do not believe Jews have a future here; you either do or do not think Britain is a country that hates Jews, and do or do not think extremism is a real and present threat to our community.

The joy of being a British Jew is holding many identities at once. There are concerns about antisemitism that really make me anxious. Last summer during Operation Protective Edge, London experienced its highest level of hate-crime on record — more than nine tenths was aimed at Jews. In cyberspace, the Nazi hashtag “HitlerWasRight” trended on Twitter. That provoked questions no British Jew wanted to answer and revealed interfaith relationships that need improving.

Being a British Jew is a blessing. My colleague, Rabbi Mark Goldsmith, told the BBC that the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism portrait of British Jewry “did not compute at all with our experience”. How could it, when there is so much to celebrate? We have beautiful and improving relationships with Muslims and Christians, a robust voice in public discourse and the lowest levels of anti-Semitism in Western Europe. I recently witnessed a microcosm of British Jewry at Limmud Conference, where three thousand people celebrated being Jewish: studying, singing, schmoozing. Our synagogues, our youth movements and our cross-communal institutions are not only a model for minority life in Britain, but Jewish life across the world. This is not the 1930s. I am safe as a British Jew.

The murders at Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarkets sent tremors of tragedy across the Diaspora — they forced Jews to reflect on their place in society, everywhere. The best response to those events is not turning inward. It is not accepting Netanyahu’s narrative: “Come home to Israel from terrible European anti-Semitism.” The danger of discrimination does not necessitate desertion, but devotion. It demands we work even harder to ensure Britain remains a safe place for Jews, and does not import division and discrimination from elsewhere. This is not the 1930s — although when it was, Jews took up their pots, pans and pebbles before declaring their time was up.



This UK antisemitism survey would have shocked my great uncle Alex

He survived the Holocaust and never trusted France – but he always thought Jewish people could feel at home in Britain

By Hadley Freeman, CiF, The Guardian
January 14, 2015

On 20 September 1943, my great uncle Alex found for the first and last time in his life that the smarts for which he would always be renowned in his family were no longer enough: he was arrested in Nice and sent to the death camps.

Alex knew what awaited him there; his older brother Jakob had done this journey already and died in Auschwitz a year before. So he dug up the floorboards of the train with his stubby fingers, slipped through the hole, lay on the track while the train rattled over him and walked back to Paris, hidden along the way by communists. He then joined the Resistance, but he never trusted France again. In later life, he gave back the Légion d’Honneur he was awarded for his war service after Charles de Gaulle described Jews in 1967 as “elite, domineering and sure of themselves”.

Are you tired of Holocaust stories? Apologies for bringing up all that “unpleasantness” again, but I’ve been thinking about Alex this week. According to a YouGov poll, 45% of Britons agreed with at least one antisemitic statement put to them, such as “Jews chase money more than other people” (endorsed by a whopping 25%), and “Jews’ loyalty to Israel makes them less loyal to Britain than other Britons” (20%).

I feel less certain about another survey this week, by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, conducted on social media, which claimed that 54% of British Jews feel they have no future in the UK. But the tenacity of antisemitic beliefs is striking even in Britain, where, according to a separate report last year by Jewish Policy Research, 47% of the British Jewish respondents felt antisemitism was not a very big problem (although 40% did feel antisemitism had increased in the past five years).

This would have astonished Alex. He adored Britain – he had been in Britain as part of the Free French before he was captured, and he often spoke about the comfort he got listening to the BBC World Service during his fighting days. I imagine it will astonish most Britons too, even those who, in a dark and unacknowledged place inside, instinctively agree with the statements posed by YouGov. You don’t have to travel too far to find them in the UK. In fact, you can just turn on the BBC.

One Jewish woman, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, told BBC reporter Tim Wilcox this week that the horrific murder of four people in a kosher supermarket made her worry about the return of Jewish persecution. “Many critics, though, of Israel’s policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well,” Wilcox said – all but saying: “So swings and roundabouts, really.”

Wilcox later apologised on Twitter for a “poorly phrased” question, as though the problem here was one of grammar. Only two months previously this same reporter, in an on-air discussion about Miliband losing Jewish support, said: “A lot of these prominent Jewish faces will be very much against the political mansion tax, presumably.” They most certainly will! You know what those Jews are like – always watching their massive pile of shekels, with their prominent faces and their prominent noses.

Now we turn to Paris, where the terrible events of last week would not have surprised Alex nearly as much. There were an astonishing number of attacks on Jews and synagogues in France last year, with the result that twice as many Jews emigrated to Israel in 2014 than the year before.

Since the awful killings there has been plenty of talk from the media and politicians about how we all mustn’t let this atrocity give rise to an anti-Muslim backlash. This is right and good. But can we take a few minutes to look at the lash itself, as well as dealing with the backlash? Four Jewish people were killed because they were in a Jewish supermarket, yet this inconvenient truth has been relatively little remarked upon, certainly compared with the angsting over the parameters of free speech at Charlie Hebdo, or commentary about the irony of the terrorists killing a fellow Muslim, the police officer Ahmed Merabet.

Is this because killing Jews is seen as par for the course when it comes to terrorist attacks? Because that does seem to be true. Going back to the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, the killers specifically sought out a Jewish community, Nariman House, and tortured and killed six Jews, including the Rabbi and his wife. The Taj Hotel has become the symbol of the Mumbai attacks but, according to some reports, it was actually Nariman House that was the terrorists’ main target. Already the killer of the Jewish people in the supermarket is being referred to, incorrectly, as “the Charlie Hebdo killer”.

So just par for the course? Maybe, but I don’t think that’s quite what’s happening here. Jews are, as the YouGov report made very clear, seen as a pretty dominant people: in charge of the media, you know. And Hollywood too. Elite, domineering and sure of themselves. So when they are attacked, there is a sense that – well, they kinda brought this on themselves, and there are other groups that are less elite that need more looking after.

I’m not sure why this is an either/or situation. A person can be horrified by anti-Muslim prejudice and also terrified by the attacks on Jews, and to talk about one is not an endorsement of the other. For a BBC reporter to balance the killing of Jews in Paris against the atrocities in Palestine is the definition of idiocy. Not as bad as expressing outright sympathy with the killer of the Jews, as the reliably idiotic “comedian” Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala did on Facebook, but still bad. This is not the victim Olympics, with only one possible “winner”. These were people who were killed, not political statements.

My great uncle Alex led a wonderful life after the war as an art dealer, but, as I said, he never again trusted the country that had betrayed him so badly. When I asked once why he refused to keep his paintings in a bank vault, preferring instead to keep them hidden in his house, he replied: “Because they always come for the Jews.” Plus ça change.



Almost half of Britons hold antisemitic view, poll suggests

YouGov study surveys attitudes towards British Jews on subjects ranging from power in the media to conduct in business

By Ben Quinn, The Guardian
January 14, 2015

Nearly half of the British population agreed with one of four antisemitic statements presented to them according to a new poll, which found that one in eight of those surveyed believe that Jewish people use the Holocaust as a means of gaining sympathy.

It also found that one in four (25%) Britons believed that Jews chase money more than other British people, a figure which rose to 39% of those participants who identified themselves as Ukip voters.

The research by YouGov was commissioned by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA), a network of activists in the UK which said that Britain was at a “tipping point” and warned that antisemitism would grow unless it was met by “zero tolerance”.

The group also carried out its own separate survey of British Jews, which found that 54% feared they had no future in the UK and that a quarter had considered leaving the country in the last two years.

The CAA described the research as “a wake-up call” following last week’s terror attacks in France, in which the victims included four Jewish men who were killed in a Paris Kosher supermarket.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, a spokesman for the campaign group, said: “Jewish people have contributed to almost every part of British life, yet rising anti-Semitism here and across Europe means that now more than ever Jews are afraid. Some are even reconsidering their future here.

“British values of tolerance and pluralism must be upheld, so that minority groups like Jews feel comfortable and protected.”

The YouGov research was carried out between 21 December and 6 January, when 3,411 British adults were surveyed on their attitudes towards British Jews.

One in six (17%) felt Jews thought they were better than other people and had too much power in the media, while one in 10 people (11%) claimed Jews were not as honest in business as other people.

One in five believed their loyalty to Israel made British Jews less loyal to the UK, while one in 10 people (10%) said they would be unhappy if a relative married a Jew.

Of those polled, men were more likely than women to believe at least one of the antisemitic statements which were put to them. Of those polled, 30% of Scots believed at least one statement (the lowest by area of the UK) compared with 49% of residents of the north of England (the highest).

Sacerdoti said that the findings did not necessarily mean that half of the population of the UK was antisemitic, but that it was quite possible that many people had picked up on stereotypes.

He added that the CAA had embarked on the research as it was aware that many Jewish people had been saying that they felt increasingly uneasy and it was felt that a “tipping point” had been reached over the Summer. Approximately 269,000 Jewish people live in Britain, making up 0.4% of the population.

The number of antisemitic attacks in the UK last year was highest recorded in the past three decades. The Community Security Trust, which records attacks on the Jewish community in the UK, found there had been a 36% rise in the total number of antisemitic incidents, including violent crime and vandalism, to 304 between January and June. That was followed by 130 incidents in July alone, which coincided with the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

The CAA’s own survey of the of 2,230 British Jews found that 56% felt that antisemitism in Britain has some echoes of the 1930s, which rose to 64% of Jewish people in the north of England.

Some 58% were concerned that Jews may not have no long-term future in Europe, while some 45% felt their family was threatened by Islamist extremism.

Last year saw a 20% increase in British immigrants to Israel, according to the Jewish Agency, which facilitates the migration of diaspora Jews to Israel. However, it contrasts with the much large rate of departure from France, where the number of French Jews leaving for Israel more than doubled the total from 2013.


* Jonathan Sacerdoti Ex-Zionist Federation activist poses as neutral expert – and BBC taken in


‘Neutral’ expert, ex Zionist Federation, Jonathan Sacerdoti above

Britain’s tsunami of anti-Semitism, by Gideon Falter, blog in Times of Israel, January 14, 2015

Many hold anti-Semitic views, Mail Online, January 14th, quotes both Gideon Falter, chairman and Jonathan Sacerdoti of CAA, as evidence of UK antisemitism.

Th Board of Deputies of British Jews, which joined with the ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ in London last autumn (which was in fact very poorly attended, see Antisemitism rally draws a crowd)
also has a stake in there being a serious and rising problem of antisemitism.

The Board spoke at Sunday’s Campaign Against Anti Semitism Rally.

OCTOBER 21, 2014 – BOARD OF DEPUTIES

We were greatly encouraged by the numbers in attendance and as you will read below, we are operating on numerous fronts to ensure that the law is used much more robustly to bring those who discriminate against Jews to task.

How we are responding by raising the issue of Anti Semitism

The Board has written to the Home Secretary to seek a meeting and updating her on the most recent incidents. Chief Executive, Gillian Merron has liaised with officials in the Department of Communities and Local Government over the action necessary to promote community cohesion, following the Minister’s meeting with CST.

The Board has sought to liaise with the London Jewish Forum to ensure that the Mayor’s office (which has oversight of the work of the Met Police) is ensuring that incidents are handled properly.

The Board is also seeking to work with Assembly members to press this case. We have continued to liaise, through the CST, with the police and prosecution service to ensure that all necessary action is taken to protect the community from anti-semitic attacks We have spoken with many of the retailers being targeted by anti-Israel protesters, to ensure kosher products remain on sale and neither customers nor shopworkers face intimidation.

..Meanwhile, the Board’s honorary officers and senior staff have maintained their high presence in the media with interviews and comment in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and elsewhere, as well as supporting pro-Israel pro-peace rallies and events in Brighton and Manchester.

The law

Most in the community will share the Board of Deputies’ deep concern about the rising and sustained anti Semitism of the past six weeks, hence we have lobbied ministers, including requesting a meeting with the Home Secretary in which we will call for answers over the numbers of arrest and prosecutions relating to anti Semitic incidents. This is part of a lobbying strategy that has seen us reach out to politicians to espouse our concerns.

The media

The Board is working with the media to make it very clear how serious the issue of anti Semitism is, and this has borne fruit with many articles that demonstrate that the British press understand the scale of the issue. In addition we are meeting the BBC to discuss the seriousness of rising anti Semitism. It is, sadly, a big news story, and we want to make sure that its importance, and the sensitivity around reporting, is fully understood.

Fighting anti-Jewish initiatives

We are fighting cultural boycotts which have the effect of discriminating against Jews – a success was the Tricycle Theatre overturning their original decision not to stage the Jewish Film Festival. We simply won’t allow for the politicisation of British cultural life, as this will only lead to a sense that Jewish life is being curtailed as some sort of misguided attempt to hold us to account over our relationship with Israel. The arts should be about freedom of artistic expression, not its curtailment based on faux foreign policies.

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