“In the November after the attack, I was walking across London with three of my young grandchildren, and we went past University College London,” he said. “Students were protesting arms sales to Israel, and they started harassing us. They shouted at me because I was wearing a kippah. It was so uncomfortable, having to push my three young granddaughters forward, hoping that they weren’t fully aware of what was going on.”
Michael Burman (left) and then-chief executive of United Synagogue Jeremy Jacobs (right)[Missing Credit]
For Jacobs, incident crystallised a growing sense that British Jews could no longer rely on wider society to stand beside them. He pointed in particular to what he viewed as a muted public response after Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis urged the “silent majority” to support British Jews following a series of antisemitic incidents.
He said: “I lost my faith in British society. I no longer believe that people would protect us. Certainly not the majority.”
Jacobs said he and his wife have now decided to emigrate to Israel. “We put our house on the market last week, and are making arrangements to start a life in Israel.”
He described a sharp deterioration in the atmosphere for Jews in Britain since October 7, saying that even wearing visible signs of Jewish identity in London now carries anxiety.
“When I walk around London with my kippah on I’m always fearful because should someone attack me, I can’t be sure if anybody would come to my defence,” he said.
He believes hostility toward Jews has become increasingly normalised, particularly within academia and on higher education campuses. “I’m hesitant to refer to what happened in the 1920s and 1930s,” he said, “but in Germany, it was in academia where the hatred really started to develop, before it was picked up by the political classes. That’s what is happening in the UK today.”
He said Jewish students and academics with any perceived connection to Israel were increasingly under pressure. “I have friends and family at university who are suffering. Any connection with Israel is seen as unacceptable.”
He added that his own grandchildren now have to hide the badges on their school blazers in order to keep safe. At another local Jewish primary school, according to Jacobs, students have been told not to wear uniforms in public before the end of term.
“It’s just not the way that we should be living our lives in a Western society.”
He said Israel now felt safer and more united than Britain, despite war and securit threats, even after he spent nights sheltering from Iranian missile attacks on a visit last year.
“My wife and I were in Israel in June 2025, when the first Iranian war took place, and we had to run into the bomb shelters two or three times a night for a week,” he said. “The atmosphere was so strong, so collegiate.”
“When I walk in Israel, even in a war zone, I feel at home,” he added. “In London, where we live, that feeling has gone.”
In his letter to The Telegraph, Jacobs warned that Britain risked losing its Jewish community altogether if antisemitism continued unchecked.
“If they do not [act], British society will lose its Jewish community completely,” he wrote. “Others will follow. Societies that fail to protect their Jews rarely recover.”
