I deleted a young woman’s Jewish identity from the internet
Politely terrifying emails arriving at Jewish News reveal a dark and sinister truth about modern Britain
For the past few years, Jewish News has received a chilling trickle of emails. Modest emails. Apologetic emails. One, maybe two a month, from people asking if we might possibly help them stop existing online as a Jew.
The requests are never dramatic and always polite. The sender would simply like their name removed from an old story on the Jewish News website. It could be a 2018 report about a talent show. A 2021 article about a charity supper. A 2022 feature about synagogue panel debate. Or a 2024 opinion piece about Passover.
None of the emailers are public figures. They are ordinary British Jews who, until a few years ago, were proud to appear in the Jewish News but now scan their Google search results with a knot in their stomach, fearful a future employer might see they are Jewish and, therefore, consider them unemployable.
The latest landed in my inbox on Sunday. It was from a young woman who, back in 2021, aged 16, had been mentioned in passing in a fun article about a prize-giving event. She’s happy for me to share some of what she wrote.
“As I begin my professional career, I am taking steps to manage my online presence, and this article currently appears prominently in search results for my name. I would therefore be very grateful if you could remove the article from your website; or anonymise my name by replacing it with initials.”
What strikes you is her polite embarrassment. Her painfully courteous tone. She hates to cause any fuss. She would just prefer, all things considered, to no longer be publicly identifiable as a Jew.
She went on to praise the value of online archives and editorial integrity, before, again, with excruciating courtesy, asking if she could simply and surreptitiously vanish from our pages.
I did what she asked, hovering over the delete button for a few heartbreaking seconds, ashamed of what I was doing and why I was doing it, but mostly ashamed of Britain – which had made a young woman think this a sensible career move. Every time I delete one of these articles I feel the same shame. Followed by boiling anger.
Something has shifted psychologically, socially and professionally for Jewish people in this country. Everybody knows it, even those who make a career out of pretending otherwise.
We have reached a very dark place as a society. One in which history suggests there may be no return
First came pupils at Jewish schools being advised to remove their uniforms when travelling to and from school. Then Jewish university students took off their Star of David necklaces, removed kippahs and began avoiding Jewish social events. Jewish healthcare workers have spoken to Jewish News about concealing their identity, while patients with obviously Jewish names have expressed fear at being identified in waiting rooms and wards.
In 2024, when Jewish News was looking to build a new website, the company we chose decided it “wasn’t comfortable” working with a Jewish newspaper. The boss told me that while he could insist his staff do the project, “their hearts wouldn’t be in it and the outcome would not be the best it could be for Jewish News”.
The company is signed up to a movement called B Corp, whose stated aim is to promote “high standards of social accountability and address society’s most critical challenges”.
I got stick for not naming the company that refused to work with Jewish News at the time, but this relentless drip of Jews wanting to disappear from public view has pushed me past the point of caring. The business that didn’t feel comfortable working with a Jewish company is Studio Republic.
The Jewish instinct to keep your head down, to not look or sound too Jewish, is woven deep into European Jewish memory. Hearing British Jews express these fears louder than at any time in the last 80 years – here in the UK in 2026 – chills the blood.
When young Jews sense professional danger in appearing in an online article about a community prize-giving, we have reached a very dark place as a society. One from which history suggests there may be no return.
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