This is the land of my mother tongue and where my friends and family reside – leaving is not something we should even have to consider. It is the UK that should not be tolerating antisemitism
January 22, 2026 17:07
Where would you live if not here, in the UK? It’s a conversation you might well have had – and possibly multiple times with multiple fellow Jews – amid the onslaught of antisemitism that has followed October 7. And whether you have been asked this question on Jewish social media groups, at dinner parties or at the school gates (if your child goes to a Jewish school), the answer would inevitably have been, Israel.
“The safest place for Jews is Israel,” I hear repeatedly. And we know that the number of British Jews making aliyah has grown by 16 per cent from January to November 2025.
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration might be offering us British Jews an alternative to the Jewish homeland: the United States. There, discussions have been taking place about granting refuge to Jews who are leaving the UK because of rising antisemitism, according to the Telegraph.
But I do not choose to live in America, nor do I choose to live in Israel. Because Britain is my home.
When I think of America, I think of oversized everything, from giant Walmart stores to gluttonous portions of burgers and pint-sized coffee cups. I feel more at home in quaint village shops, snacking on crustless cucumber sandwiches and sipping an English tea (though from a mug). That is not to say I do not feel comforted by a plate of Israeli salad and sabich, or a home-brewed chicken soup with kneidlach. But I’m being frivolous here.
It is, of course, about far more than that. While in Israel I could wear my identity firmly on my sleeve without fear of Jew-hate, Britain is the land of my mother tongue and where my friends and family reside.
I am, to put it simply, a very British Jew. When my paternal side of the family moved to Britain from Minsk, back in the 1800s, they changed their name (my quest to track down the original surname continues). But it was not to protect against antisemitism; it was to assimilate. As other families used shortened translations of their Ashkenazi surnames – Green, Black, White – when immigrating to English-speaking countries, so my forebears will have chosen “Bray”. And it was the start of building generations of life here.
Don’t get me wrong. My family are no strangers to antisemitism. My father has recounted his weekly trips as a young boy to Chelsea shul alongside my grandfather who would hide his tallit in a brown paper bag lest anyone spot his Jewishness. But, while practising their Judaism, the Bray family had become very… British.
This dual identity, therefore, is one I wear with pride. I can enjoy the cultural rituals of my country, even Christmas – albeit in a non-religious way, and be simultaneously fully immersed in my Jewish life, the festivals, simchahs and shul.
I have, like many of us, imagined living in sunnier climes than here, where it rains for an average of 156.2 days per year, according to the Met Office. And with maternal ancestral heritage in Spain, and a deep pull to roots centuries old, that is where I have imagined my alternate, vitamin D-rich life.
But the difference is, it would be out of a choice for lifestyle, not out of necessity. Certainly not because it has been recommended as the safer option.
Trump’s Manchester-born lawyer Robert Garson may have suggested the US as a safe haven for British Jews because he does not “believe… that there is a future for Jews in the UK”, but he also blamed Sir Keir Starmer for turning a “total blind eye to antisemitism” and allowing it to become “commonplace”. We have, after all, witnessed unfettered chants on our streets during pro-Palestinian marches, and the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match in Birmingham – after which a report into West Midlands Police, who made the decision, was labelled “damning” by the home secretary.
The attack on a Manchester synagogue, and the exponential rise in antisemitic incidents felt across the British community since October 7 should not mean we have to leave our green and pleasant land. Living elsewhere, whether the US or Israel, for our safety is not something British Jews should even have to consider. It is Britain that should not be tolerating antisemitism.
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