Britain has an antisemitism crisis. It is a crisis that everyone in this room is accountable for solving. The Jewish community needs you to meet this moment.
I need you all to understand how British Jews feel.
Like many of us, I spend a lot of time in Golders Green. I get my lunch at the Kosher supermarket. I pick up Challah bread for my family for Shabbat at the Jewish bakery. I saw them both behind a police cordon last week. I couldn’t bring myself to stand at a bus stop, because I’d just seen footage of a Jewish man violently stabbed at one.
I was lucky to have supportive non-Jewish friends at university. I say lucky, because the Union of Jewish Students’ recent report found that one in five students are reluctant or unwilling to share a house with a Jew. Old-fashioned prejudice is becoming entrenched in the next generation.
I spend my life travelling across the country, working with brilliant Jewish young people who live proud Jewish lives on campus. They want to be leaders of British society in the years to come.
But many young Jews now despair for our future. We look to the workplace. The arts. The media. Healthcare. Trade unions. Candidates for local government. And the frightening direction of travel: A minority emboldened to be hateful. And others who know it is wrong, but haven’t found the clarity to condemn it.
Because the nagging question these past weeks has been this. Where is the outrage? Where has anti-racist civil society gone? We know mass solidarity is possible. The Me Too movement. Black Lives Matter. The Together Alliance, who stood against the far-right just this March. We need that spirit now.
Instead, we see whataboutery. When Jews cry “antisemitism”, we’re asked why we haven’t condemned Israel. We’re told that Israel’s actions excuse an angry backlash against us. But no one asked the victims of last week’s stabbings for their views on Israeli policy.
All the while, violent language has been normalised. “Globalise the intifada”. “Death to the IDF”. “Put the Zios in the ground”. And violent language breeds violent acts. Jihad al-Shamie, while attacking Heaton Park Synagogue and murdering British Jews, shouted “this is what you get for killing our children”.
On campus, Jewish students have been stalked home, chased with glass bottles, and beaten up in nightclubs – because of the skullcap on their heads and the star of David round their necks.
There is legitimate criticism of the Israeli government, and then there is hateful incitement towards Israelis, Zionists, and Jews, here in Britain.
Britain has a long history of fighting racism. And this is no position for a proud liberal democracy, a proud multicultural society, to find itself in. We need to meet this moment with a full crisis response.
So, I thank the prime minister and his team for convening this crucial gathering. And I thank the government ministers and advisers who have done important work so far.
We now need to build on it, accelerate action, and pull every lever we have as a country to respond.
The Jewish community cares deeply about Britain. We are proud to be British and proud to be Jewish. We want to be outward-facing, build bridges, and participate fully in multicultural modern Britain. But we need to feel like we belong here.
More money for security is crucial, and we’re grateful for it.
A counter-extremism strategy is imperative, and we need to implement it.
Stronger regulation across sectors is necessary, and we need to accelerate it.
But what really makes Jews feel like we belong in this country is the allyship of non-Jewish people.
I’ve been reassured this past week by the non-Jewish family friend who asked how he could do a CST security shift. And by the online influencers eating at Jewish-run restaurants in Golders Green. And the university leaders asking us what more they can do to be there for their students. And these small acts need to be scaled up.
What we need is leaders of our institutions publicly standing by us. Committing to tangible action to support us. Turning permissive environments into zero tolerance for hate. Showing not institutional timidity, but real bravery. With the full force of government behind them.
For Jews, antisemitism has become suffocating. It is making us shrink inwards. Every one of your Jewish staff, clients, customers, friends – whatever sector you’re in – is going through this. We all make calculations about hiding our Jewishness because it might literally save our lives.
And so it’s brilliant that you’re all here today. We need your allyship – in this room, and beyond. You are here because you can help ensure Jews continue to feel like we belong in Britain. Together, we can turn a corner.
It is now my honour to introduce the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
Louis Danker is the president of the Union of Jewish Students. He spoke before the prime minister at a summit in Downing Street aimed at tackling antisemitism across society.
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