In the immediate aftermath of yesterday’s terror attack on Jews in Golders Green, my initial response was fear. Sitting studying for my A-Levels in school, the only questions being revised in my mind were the following:
Were my friends or family members among the victims?
Is there an end to the prevalent antisemitism we see in Britain today?
The Jewish community in London is small, tight-knit, everybody knows everyone. Jews account for less than 0.5 per cent of the British population, yet we have the second highest number of reported hate crimes. Nobody that I speak to is free from this epidemic of antisemitism and extreme Jew hate.
While over 3,000 incidents may have been reported in the past year, hundreds more go unrecorded. People experience “low-level” antisemitism: comments like “free Palestine” shouted aggressively, or outright abuse like “f***ing Jew” and choose not to report it. It has become normalised, dismissed as something that “just happens,” not worth escalating to the CST or the police.
But the past few months have shown how wrong we were to assume the worst things thrown at us would be painful words. In just the last month in the UK, there have been multiple attacks targeting Jewish people, businesses, and synagogues. The result is a growing and deeply felt fear within our community.
The response from political leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has done little to ease that fear. The prime minister was quick to convey how “shocked” he was at the Golders Green stabbing. How he feels “utterly appalled.”
For the Jewish community, words such as these just evoke memories of the last terror attack, the last lip service carried out by those in government. If he was "appalled" after Heaton Park, last October, and the Hatzola ambulance arson attacks caused him to feel “horrified,” (thank you Sir Keir for your support), then why has nothing changed?
Do his words bring comfort to a single Jew? I doubt it. This is the same man who was so proud of his decision not to assist the United States and Israel in their campaign against the Iranian terror regime. The same Iranian terror regime which, through a spider-web of proxy networks in the Middle East and across the planet, has claimed the lives of hundreds of Israelis, Jews, Americans and Brits, as well as thousands of their own civilians earlier this year.
The response from our government towards rising crime and hate against Jews has been minimal and utterly insignificant. A greater police presence for a day after an attack is alarming rather than reassuring. It merely suggests the existence of threats, as opposed to a credible move to root out the causes of the radicalised Islamist attacks.
Now I know the two victims are in stable conditions in hospital, I’ve been mulling over the events of earlier, and my fears haven’t receded.
Next year, I'm privileged to be able to study in Israel, the land of my people. My family is planning to remain in the UK. I’m the one worrying for my family’s future here. While I’m in a war zone, surrounded by hostile Arab states, my friends and family are in England’s progressive metropolis of multiculturalism and liberty. I’ll be the one fearful for their safety.
How did it come to this?
My family first came to the UK in 1865. Over 150 years ago. We've gone to university, worked jobs, contributed to the economy, been active members of the community. The contributions that British Jews have made to our country are innumerable, and disproportionately positive. We've shaped this country’s culture, economy, literature, and values. What do we get in return? Betrayal, shifting alliances, arson and stabbings. And so now, many of us are off to Israel.
If you’re not Jewish and you know people who are, please reach out. For a Jew in the diaspora, our list of allies seems to be shrinking daily. Don’t let the silent majority remain silent. Speak out and call out what’s wrong. And if you succeed, there may still be a Jew or two here in the year 2050.
Ahron Asher Moss is a full-time student who loves English and football and hopes to pursue a career in or around one or both of those fields
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