He claimed conversations are already being had in Jewish homes about people booking their tickets to leave the UK
The UK risks ‘losing’ its Jewish community after the Manchester synagogue attack, says a leading figure. Two Jews in Manchester died yesterday (Thursday, October 2) after suspected attacker Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, launched a knife and car attack during Yom Kippur, the holiest day to religious Jews.
MyLondon spoke to Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism. He holds a grim view on Britain’s Jews’ future, and exclusively told us the ‘deranged hatred’ towards them has parallels with ‘the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany’.
Mr Silverman said although he felt a deep sense of shock following the 9.30am attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, but it came as no surprise and thought ‘it’s finally happened’. He said: “There was no way that with the trajectory we were on and the inaction by a number of agencies and institutions who could’ve stopped this, there was no way that this was not going to happen at some point. We desperately hoped that it wouldn’t happen but we always feared that it would, and it did.
“Although the shock was visceral, there was no real surprise. It was inevitable. This [a rise in Antisemitism] has been going on for several years now, but it really became turbo charged after the of October 7 2023.”
‘Jews live in fear’
Stephen Silverman said the community is scared that yesterday’s attack will be repeated, and Jews have already begun modifying themselves out of fear they’ll be next. In fact, he even claimed British Jews who once toyed with the idea of fleeing are in some cases booking their tickets to leave.
He said: “The big fear that yesterday wasn’t a one off and there’s no reason to think it would be. The climate of fear that Jews in urban centres have been living with have been intense for quite some time now. We know that a great many Jews who used to openly display signs of their identity no longer do so. We know that vast numbers of the Jewish community are at various stages of leaving the UK from having conversations around the dinner table to actually booking their tickets.”
Mr Silverman added: “No one seriously believes that British Jews are now safe in this country and unless the events of yesterday morning are the catalyst for a major change then that fear will only become more deeply embedded within the community.”
‘It’s like the early years of Nazi Germany’
He went on to compare the way Britain’s Jews are being dealt with following on from the October 7 attacks ‘is mirroring what happened in the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany’. He made very clear that he doesn’t want to draw parallels with the Holocaust ‘because there is no comparison’, however Jews are being ‘discriminated against, excluded from activities – we’re seeing increasingly events related to Jewish interests being closed down, we’re seeing discussions about Israel being expelled from FIFA, from Eurovision, from other organisations and events’.
He also thinks contemporary rhetoric about Jews is similar to what the Nazis used to spout. He said: “We’re seeing language about Jews that is very, very similar to language which was used by the Nazis and expressing the ideas. Jewish supremacism is becoming very popular to describe any Jew that believes in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. And of course violent attacks on Jews – stopping short hot of murder for being Jews – because they’re easily identifiable of Jews. These things are reminiscent of the ways Jews were treated in the early days of Nazi Germany.”
‘The UK will lose its Jewish community’
On the basis of increasing violence and what Stephen sees as a ‘turbo charge’ of Antisemitism, he fears the UK will lose its Jewish community. He said a mass exodus of Jews ‘has gone from a theoretical discussion to a very real one’, before adding a claim that when the Jews have left people will focus on another minority group.
“Of course when there are no more Jews, the attention will turn to some other minority. It’s not just Jewish interests that are risk here, it’s the Liberal Democratic values all minorities depend upon to keep them safe,” he said.
What happened in Manchester?
Police raced to reports of a stabbing and a man driving a car at the public at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue at about 9.31am yesterday. The suspect had been shot dead within seven minutes – at 9.38am.
Worshippers were held inside the synagogue for safety while the area was secured. The suspected offender is Jihad Al-Shamie, 35.
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died after the attack, with one of the men dying from a gunshot as armed cops tried to takeout the killer. Three people have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack in connection with the killings.
Al-Shamie, 35, is understood to have entered the UK as a young child and been granted British citizenship in 2006 when he was aged around 16.
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