We are finished in this country.” Not every one of us in the community thinks this. Indeed, I doubt it’s even close to the majority view. But everyone wonders about it. Could it be true?
Here’s why I don’t think so.
Let me start by acknowledging that my normal optimism about the future of Jews has been sorely tested these few years. When recently I was invited to talk about our political situation, I was more downbeat than I have ever been. On the left, the attempt to replace the support of the working class with a new coalition of underprivileged people led to the rise of identity politics. It produced an ideological focus on imperialism and a political alliance with political Islam. And increasingly this alliance identified Israel as their enemy. They began, successfully, to spread the idea that Zionists were a cabal, using their money and power to occupy British institutions.
Meanwhile, in the United States, part of the right has started to argue that American foreign and domestic policy is being subverted by Jews. And some of this has already travelled to the UK.
So far the far-left-political Islam coalition has made more of an impact on Jewish life, but the direction of the more extreme online right is discouraging to say the least.
The Manchester synagogue deaths were simultaneously a horrible shock and completely unsurprising. Similarly the recent news of a planned atrocity averted by police action. And meanwhile smaller but still serious events have been deeply troubling. Demonstrations outside a restaurant, door-to-door campaigning in Brighton, a Jewish comedian accosted on the Tube, the law buckling to activists, the list gets longer all the time.
But still I argue firmly, we aren’t finished in this country.
The first reason for this isn’t that encouraging. For all that we worry about our safety here, where else exactly are we supposed to go?
I understand those people who wish to make aliyah. I respect that decision and understand the emotional pull. But as a move to enhance family safety? I don’t think so.
Until the last five years I might have answered “America” if considering a safe refuge for Jews. But now? I note only that the worst antisemitic abuse I receive originates in that country. And that every extreme trend is worse and more violent there. It seems like a society constantly on the edge.
And nowhere else in Europe is it tempting, either. Or the Middle East. Or Africa for that matter. Jews are a small minority in almost every country we live in and that is inevitably perilous. But I don’t think we are finished here unless someone has a better idea, and I don’t think someone does have a better idea.
But I do have a more positive reason for believing in the future for Jews in Britain. It has become harder for Jews everywhere, we all feel less safe, but a sense of proportion is required. This remains one of the greatest times to be alive as a Jew, and Britain is one of the greatest places.
When I read the story of both sets of my grandparents before they were engulfed by the disasters of the 1930s and 1940s, I could see the warning signs. Absolutely I could. The growth of open antisemitism, the slow rise of violence, the breakdown of taboos. All the things we worry about now did indeed precede the catastrophe.
Yet the difference in extent is as striking as the similarly in nature. The extent of violence and hatred was of an entirely different scale. And Germany, in particular, was a much more unstable country. British democracy and rule of law certainly has its challenges but remains, by comparison, vastly stronger.
When I wrote recently in The Times about my experience of antisemitic abuse I was flooded with kind messages from readers. We certainly have enemies but we also have many allies. There are millions of decent people in Britain who realise that their own safety and liberty is bound up in ours.
Besides, over hundreds of years we have built our own culture and community in this country. It’s not something to give up lightly. I don’t think complacency is warranted. Sadly, it is not warranted at all. But a little defiance is. This is certainly still the place for me.
Daniel Finkelstein is associate editor of The Times.
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