Scary Yom Kippur for us all back here in Manchester. Well said Rabbi Slifkin
Whenever there is anything like violence from the right wing, the press is quick to point to the direction of something that a vaguely right wing politician recently said and label it a “dog whistle” to racists. Yet when an islamist attack and murder of jews happens, there is no sound from those same news organisations pointing out the obvious connection to all the very much in the open whistling of the pro hamas squad.
The "Squad" are American anti-Semites, not British. And one of them did get some pretty negative publicity when her Chief of Staff wore a t-shirt bearing an image of a notorious Nazi (and Japanese genocidist) collaborator:
That Chief of Staff is now running for his own congressional seat, against former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This will be Pelosi's first competitive election in decades and the first one in which she is running against someone with a huge amount more money. The entire American Jewish community needs to send Pelosi's campaign as much money as possible. This is not a friendly district for us and she will need all the help she can get. Even the other Squad members haven't embraced actual Nazi collaborators. I personally contributed to the successful opponents of two Squad members who lost primaries last election cycle.
And I hope you aren't excusing the dog whistles and even open appeals to racists we have from the far right in the US and elsewhere. They aren't our friends.
I noticed the same thing when I watched Spook’s. It’s not only this show many of the other police and detective dramas I watch from the UK never, ever deal with jihadism. It’s always White Supremacism or some other group but radical Islam is never shown in a bad light. In fact Netflix’s 20th anniversary about the London Tube bombings had Muslims being the victims! It was so disappointing. And Starmer wants to enshrine an anti-Islamophobia into law when they’ve already been self censoring for decades.😼
I have spent about 70 years living in Manchester being visibly Jewish and including 3 years in London/Manchester at University and 6 years in a non-Jewish secondary school. I am visibly Jewish.
In all that time I have never experienced any anti-semitism with one single exception of one boy in my class in the non-Jewish school.
Our local newsagent for many years is a Muslim, so was one of our printers and I have from time to time used muslim contractors in our specialist areas. Same result - never any negative comments about Jews.
We provide specialist financial training courses. True story: one of our public London courses was starting. The room filled up leaving two seats together and two participants to join.
One participant walked in and sat down; he was an employee of SAMA: the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority - the equivalent of the Bank of England but in Saudi Arabia.
The last participant walked in; a haredi man from Tel Aviv working for a significant Israeli bank. He sat on the remaining seat next to the Saudi. The two spent 3 days working together (in English) with no trouble.
In all our interactions we talk about anything but politics. Each participant knows the other might have different political views so why open up a possible conflict ? It is irrelevant. Just get on with the business at hand.
Final point; there is a Tesco superstore in Cheetham Hill - a significant part of the local jewish community and a low income area. The area is allegedly the most multi-ethnic area in the UK. It is common to see many muslim and immigrant families and haredi families pushing their trolleys around the store with no problems to the best of my knowledge.
Antisemitic incidents make the news but readers should realise that perhaps 99% of intercommunity actions are peaceful (ignoring hotspots like the universities). It would be a tragedy to let the tiny minority of incidents overshadow and misrepresent the reality of the situation.
I haven;t lived in Manchester anything like 70 years. I have lived here for about 15, and in the UK for over 40. And I can absolutely say that I have experienced direct anti-antisemitism multiple times over that period. Not violent, but direct, unambiguous anti-antisemitism, including being Nazi saluted and shouted f*** the jews (that one I reported to the police). So while you may be lucky to not have ever experienced anything like that, it certainly happens. Statistics gathered by CST also show that anti-antisemitism is not a rare occurrence.
While you are correct that the vast majority of "inter-community interactions" are peaceful - I'm not sure what point that is trying to make. Of course 99% of interactions are peaceful - if only 1% were not then we would truly be in a dire situation. The points are that: too many are not; the number of anti-semetic incidents has grown significantly in recent years; and that there are many credible serious terrorist threats to the Jewish community in the UK. Thankfully most of these threats are stopped before they are actioned. Thankfully we have the ability to have pretty high security around our shuls and schools and through our community that help prevent who knows how many more attacks. But none of us are really surprised at what happened today; and the first name of the attacker should be a little hint that this is more than just a happenstance incident, rather is a far more pervasive and deeply ingrained problem.
It bothers me that all the politicians give the same platitudes "we will not give in to hate" "anti semitism has no place in our country" etc. but none are willing to deal with the route cause of the issue; they only see anti semitism as being a serious problem in cases such as these where people are injured or killed. When it's "just" people being shouted at in the street or "just" people calling for intifada.
So no, I'm not misrepresenting the problem. People are "only" being shouted at in the street in an anti semitic way a couple of times a day here in Manchester. And people are "only" being assaulted a couple of times a month here in Manchester (CST 2024 figures) but 99% of "inter-community interactions" are peaceful.
Hatred or dislike ? That may be where our differences lie.
I accept "dislike". Many people dislike others who are just different ; I well remember a business meeting I had decades ago in Manchester with a local very English businessman who had inherited a significant group of profitable companies. He went on about "Yorkshiremen" and that you couldn't trust them.
My thought at his attitude was that if you are like that about those in a neighbouring county what do you think of Jews ?
I learned later that in the 1930's as a very affluent young man he had been involved with the British Union of Fascists although I never had any trouble with him in the short period we had meetings and anyway this was 30 years after the war.
The Almighty punished him. One of his daughters married a Jewish doctor (although the marriage later ended in divorce.)
Hatred is completely different. And to be honest are we (or any people) such marvels and angels to demand that we should be liked ? Yes we are tolerated but most people tolerate those who are different.
I see some dislike of Jews (which to me seems acceptable) but no one is entitled to be loved. The middle road is toleration. Only since October 7th has any real hatred become visible IMHO and even then not from all the demonstrators..
We do not need thin skins and being supersensitive to the odd negative commment is I think counterproductive. Whingers lose their impact and destroy their point by their frequency of winging. Negative or somewhat abusive comments from one football team's supporters about another's does not lead to any action being taken. It may go with the territory.
I'm sorry Michael, but I have no idea what you are talking about.
The statistics I quoted were for antisemitic abuse and violence, not "dislike". We don't have security guards at every school gate and at every jewish event in case someone "mildly dislikes" us. When people chant "intifada revolution" they don't have serving slightly weaker tea in mind. What happened yesterday was intifada; we have a situation where for years it has been perfectly acceptable for tens of thousands (!!!) to march every week (!!!) openly calling for intifada. I don't believe that since the blackshirts we have seen anything like this in our country; we shouldn't understate the scale or severity of the problem.
I'm not a fan of reading antisemitism into every curled brow aimed our way; but to ignore the fact that this is a whole nother level and that the misdirection of the press and government every time it is seen (apparently intifada has another meaning and who knows, maybe that's what the protesters mean) is, I believe, misguided.
Compare the UK with Mexico, a country that has about double the population of the UK. The UK had 3,528 anti-Semitic incidents reported last year. Mexico had 53.
100% correct, I'm afraid as nice as a man that Michael is he is in self denial mode, as most British Jews are. "never having a problem" with someone doesn't mean that there is a group of people that want to destroy us if they got half a chance. Individuals in that group may very well be polite, courteous and "never have a problem" on a day to day one on one interaction.
We don't need anyone to love us, and we don't need to love others that are different, if we were all polite and "got along" that would be fine, but don't ignore the blood thirsty chants and hateful speech that stirs up real anti Semitism, week in and week out in our city.
You must be living in a different Manchester to me?
Most customers at a supermarket just want to get on with their shopping, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t hatred! In the Manchester that I live in, we were not at all shocked by this tragic event and I’m afraid to say it won’t be the last. In fact Iv been surprised that it’s taken so long. The BBC certainly have to accept a lot of the blame along with the government.
Scary Yom Kippur for us all back here in Manchester. Well said Rabbi Slifkin
Whenever there is anything like violence from the right wing, the press is quick to point to the direction of something that a vaguely right wing politician recently said and label it a “dog whistle” to racists. Yet when an islamist attack and murder of jews happens, there is no sound from those same news organisations pointing out the obvious connection to all the very much in the open whistling of the pro hamas squad.
The "Squad" are American anti-Semites, not British. And one of them did get some pretty negative publicity when her Chief of Staff wore a t-shirt bearing an image of a notorious Nazi (and Japanese genocidist) collaborator:
https://www.newsweek.com/who-was-subhas-chandra-bose-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-senior-staffer-criticized-sporting-image-1448687
That Chief of Staff is now running for his own congressional seat, against former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This will be Pelosi's first competitive election in decades and the first one in which she is running against someone with a huge amount more money. The entire American Jewish community needs to send Pelosi's campaign as much money as possible. This is not a friendly district for us and she will need all the help she can get. Even the other Squad members haven't embraced actual Nazi collaborators. I personally contributed to the successful opponents of two Squad members who lost primaries last election cycle.
And I hope you aren't excusing the dog whistles and even open appeals to racists we have from the far right in the US and elsewhere. They aren't our friends.
I said squad, not Squad
Let's hope this will help
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/digital-iron-dome-ai-technology-countering-anti-israel-disinformation/
I noticed the same thing when I watched Spook’s. It’s not only this show many of the other police and detective dramas I watch from the UK never, ever deal with jihadism. It’s always White Supremacism or some other group but radical Islam is never shown in a bad light. In fact Netflix’s 20th anniversary about the London Tube bombings had Muslims being the victims! It was so disappointing. And Starmer wants to enshrine an anti-Islamophobia into law when they’ve already been self censoring for decades.😼
One of your best. You should expand it as to the root causes.
Natan
For once I have to disagree with you.
I have spent about 70 years living in Manchester being visibly Jewish and including 3 years in London/Manchester at University and 6 years in a non-Jewish secondary school. I am visibly Jewish.
In all that time I have never experienced any anti-semitism with one single exception of one boy in my class in the non-Jewish school.
Our local newsagent for many years is a Muslim, so was one of our printers and I have from time to time used muslim contractors in our specialist areas. Same result - never any negative comments about Jews.
We provide specialist financial training courses. True story: one of our public London courses was starting. The room filled up leaving two seats together and two participants to join.
One participant walked in and sat down; he was an employee of SAMA: the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority - the equivalent of the Bank of England but in Saudi Arabia.
The last participant walked in; a haredi man from Tel Aviv working for a significant Israeli bank. He sat on the remaining seat next to the Saudi. The two spent 3 days working together (in English) with no trouble.
In all our interactions we talk about anything but politics. Each participant knows the other might have different political views so why open up a possible conflict ? It is irrelevant. Just get on with the business at hand.
Final point; there is a Tesco superstore in Cheetham Hill - a significant part of the local jewish community and a low income area. The area is allegedly the most multi-ethnic area in the UK. It is common to see many muslim and immigrant families and haredi families pushing their trolleys around the store with no problems to the best of my knowledge.
Antisemitic incidents make the news but readers should realise that perhaps 99% of intercommunity actions are peaceful (ignoring hotspots like the universities). It would be a tragedy to let the tiny minority of incidents overshadow and misrepresent the reality of the situation.
Michael
I haven;t lived in Manchester anything like 70 years. I have lived here for about 15, and in the UK for over 40. And I can absolutely say that I have experienced direct anti-antisemitism multiple times over that period. Not violent, but direct, unambiguous anti-antisemitism, including being Nazi saluted and shouted f*** the jews (that one I reported to the police). So while you may be lucky to not have ever experienced anything like that, it certainly happens. Statistics gathered by CST also show that anti-antisemitism is not a rare occurrence.
While you are correct that the vast majority of "inter-community interactions" are peaceful - I'm not sure what point that is trying to make. Of course 99% of interactions are peaceful - if only 1% were not then we would truly be in a dire situation. The points are that: too many are not; the number of anti-semetic incidents has grown significantly in recent years; and that there are many credible serious terrorist threats to the Jewish community in the UK. Thankfully most of these threats are stopped before they are actioned. Thankfully we have the ability to have pretty high security around our shuls and schools and through our community that help prevent who knows how many more attacks. But none of us are really surprised at what happened today; and the first name of the attacker should be a little hint that this is more than just a happenstance incident, rather is a far more pervasive and deeply ingrained problem.
It bothers me that all the politicians give the same platitudes "we will not give in to hate" "anti semitism has no place in our country" etc. but none are willing to deal with the route cause of the issue; they only see anti semitism as being a serious problem in cases such as these where people are injured or killed. When it's "just" people being shouted at in the street or "just" people calling for intifada.
So no, I'm not misrepresenting the problem. People are "only" being shouted at in the street in an anti semitic way a couple of times a day here in Manchester. And people are "only" being assaulted a couple of times a month here in Manchester (CST 2024 figures) but 99% of "inter-community interactions" are peaceful.
Hatred or dislike ? That may be where our differences lie.
I accept "dislike". Many people dislike others who are just different ; I well remember a business meeting I had decades ago in Manchester with a local very English businessman who had inherited a significant group of profitable companies. He went on about "Yorkshiremen" and that you couldn't trust them.
My thought at his attitude was that if you are like that about those in a neighbouring county what do you think of Jews ?
I learned later that in the 1930's as a very affluent young man he had been involved with the British Union of Fascists although I never had any trouble with him in the short period we had meetings and anyway this was 30 years after the war.
The Almighty punished him. One of his daughters married a Jewish doctor (although the marriage later ended in divorce.)
Hatred is completely different. And to be honest are we (or any people) such marvels and angels to demand that we should be liked ? Yes we are tolerated but most people tolerate those who are different.
I see some dislike of Jews (which to me seems acceptable) but no one is entitled to be loved. The middle road is toleration. Only since October 7th has any real hatred become visible IMHO and even then not from all the demonstrators..
We do not need thin skins and being supersensitive to the odd negative commment is I think counterproductive. Whingers lose their impact and destroy their point by their frequency of winging. Negative or somewhat abusive comments from one football team's supporters about another's does not lead to any action being taken. It may go with the territory.
But of course I may be wrong...
I'm sorry Michael, but I have no idea what you are talking about.
The statistics I quoted were for antisemitic abuse and violence, not "dislike". We don't have security guards at every school gate and at every jewish event in case someone "mildly dislikes" us. When people chant "intifada revolution" they don't have serving slightly weaker tea in mind. What happened yesterday was intifada; we have a situation where for years it has been perfectly acceptable for tens of thousands (!!!) to march every week (!!!) openly calling for intifada. I don't believe that since the blackshirts we have seen anything like this in our country; we shouldn't understate the scale or severity of the problem.
I'm not a fan of reading antisemitism into every curled brow aimed our way; but to ignore the fact that this is a whole nother level and that the misdirection of the press and government every time it is seen (apparently intifada has another meaning and who knows, maybe that's what the protesters mean) is, I believe, misguided.
Shabbat Shalom
The UK clearly has a problem with anti-Semitism:
https://cst.tau.ac.il/antisemitism-worldwide-report-for-2024/
Compare the UK with Mexico, a country that has about double the population of the UK. The UK had 3,528 anti-Semitic incidents reported last year. Mexico had 53.
100% correct, I'm afraid as nice as a man that Michael is he is in self denial mode, as most British Jews are. "never having a problem" with someone doesn't mean that there is a group of people that want to destroy us if they got half a chance. Individuals in that group may very well be polite, courteous and "never have a problem" on a day to day one on one interaction.
We don't need anyone to love us, and we don't need to love others that are different, if we were all polite and "got along" that would be fine, but don't ignore the blood thirsty chants and hateful speech that stirs up real anti Semitism, week in and week out in our city.
Wake up and smell the Tea.
You must be living in a different Manchester to me?
Most customers at a supermarket just want to get on with their shopping, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t hatred! In the Manchester that I live in, we were not at all shocked by this tragic event and I’m afraid to say it won’t be the last. In fact Iv been surprised that it’s taken so long. The BBC certainly have to accept a lot of the blame along with the government.
So much for enligtenment and being progressive