U.K. Jews Are Leaving Britain Because Of Rise In Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is driving British Jews out of the country. So one family, Honey and Simon Gould along with their teenage kids, are packing up and moving to Arizona, leaving everything behind including a lovely home, successful business and many friends. Not easy for two people in their late 40s early 50s, but they feel compelled to.

She is not the only member of Britain’s 300,000-strong Jewish community to feel things have reached crisis point. Since the gun attack that killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last year and the murder by radical Islamists of four Jews at a kosher supermarket on the outskirts of Paris last month, the chorus of concern has been growing. The actress Maureen Lipman recently revealed that she, too, is considering leaving the UK because of the rising number of attacks on Jews.

A poll by the Campaign Against Antisemitism last month found nearly half of Britons thought that at least one anti‑Semitic view presented to them was “definitely or probably true”.

Then, yesterday, annual figures from the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, showed a record number of anti‑Semitic incidents in 2014 (1,168 incidents were recorded, more than double the 535 incidents logged in 2013).

Manchester, where the Goulds live, and London have seen the greatest increase in anti-Semitism. But it's not just from the Muslim community, the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel leftists are making Jews in the U.K. feel very unsafe, as well. And Simon thinks the far-Right is one step away from doing the same.

Radical Islam, agrees Simon, is not the only driving force behind the rise in anti‑Semitism. The far‑Left habitually conflates Jews with Israel and Zionism, he says. The far‑Right, meanwhile, may be “happy firing salvos at the Muslim population, but I know we are only one step away from their wrath,” he says.

Having spent 10 years on the northern board of the CST, he is acutely aware of how bad things have become. “I’ve been exposed to, and become familiar with, spiralling anti‑Semitism,” he says. “Eggs hurled from passing cars, swastikas on Jewish headstones, messages of hatred. Last summer, central Manchester – a place I love and have always lived in – became a flashpoint for virulent anti-Israel demonstrations. It was terrifying to see this on the streets of my home city.”

And he's spot on, regarding the far-Right. I've seen a plethora of anti-Jewish commentary from the far-Right conspiracy theorists who blame everything on the Jews and Zionists. They hate the Jews as much as they hate the Muslims.

The rest here.