Letters to the editor: Innocent Muslim Uighurs need our support 

Innocent Muslim Uighurs need our support 

Between one and three million people are currently locked up and suffering in concentration camps, their future in the balance. They are not allowed to perform circumcisions. Beards are strictly forbidden and, if seen, can be forcibly shaved off in the street.

This is happening not to Jews, but to innocent Muslim Uighurs of west China.

We, as the children of Holocaust survivors, know that the world did nothing to save our parents’ and grandparents’ generation from industrial slaughter.

Now round-ups have been performed on an industrial scale. We cannot complain that nobody spoke for us, if we do not speak for them now.

Andrew Kaye, By email

Don’t panic over antisemitism

I am responding to your depiction of this year’s spike in antisemitic attacks (Antisemitism hits record high for third year in succession, 7 February). Excluding the alarming inroads that antisemitism has made within the Labour Party, and the evident danger of Islamic extremism, which of course demands our utter attentiveness and countering, the bulk of these attacks, I assume, are casual, drunken verbal insults hurled towards unfortunate passers-by.

It does not mandate increased defensive action or greater security measures and isolation. Rather, it is just a normal, relatively harmless, low-impact product of xenophobia that will perhaps always exist, at least within a certain stratum of British society.

We should be cautious of equating the antisemitism within our continent today with Jewish historical experience. Our forefathers were subjected to violence and bodily harm and lived under the whim of authorities that deemed them inferior and the legitimate, even just, subject of persecution. Today is very different.

Despite these low-level attacks, we live under a government that treats us as equal citizens and in a society most of whose members are kind and tolerant, and where such violence is quelled by a fair and robust justice system.

Never has it been so safe to live as a Jew and we should not forget that, despite reports, needed as they may be, of increased antisemitism.

Gavriel Cohn, Hendon

… but how serious is Labour response?

One must question how hard Labour executives are actually attempting to treat the issue of antisemitism, as we have witnessed a large number of the party have become emboldened and outspoken in their views, and some might say fuelled by the likes of their leader Jeremy Corbyn, who some might say is an habitual offender.

Should the actual dark scenario occur of a Labour government coming to power led by Mr Corbyn, the phrase “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you” might unfortunately have more than a modicum of truth about it.

Hopefully, but unlikely prior to the next general election, many Labour MPs will split from the party to side with the Liberals or form a new party for the good of
the many, not the few.

Stephen Vishnick, Tel Aviv

Schools awards were heartwarming  

Congratulations on your annual Jewish Schools Awards. I was in the audience at JW3, the first time I have attended.

It was inspiring to hear about the achievements of educators at Jewish schools – many of whom are not Jewish themselves.

Our teachers rarely get the credit they richly deserve. Well done for focusing the spotlight on them.

Emma Rabbin, By email  

Ban was an error

I’d like to respond to Warren Grynberg being barred from the Righteous Muslims exhibition at Eton Road Mosque, held by Faith Matters to highlight the Albanian Muslims who saved a number of Jews.

It distresses me that he was not allowed in to the exhibition, especially as he had family who passed away in the Holocaust.

However, I truly believe it was an administrative error. I know a number of Jewish people who attended the event, many of whom are Zionists.

Members of Eton Road Mosque were called “Zionist stooges” for holding the event as Islamists objected to the involvement of Yad Vashem.

To hold it was an act of bravery, given the abuse they received not just from Islamists but far-right elements of the Jewish community who attack interfaith work between Jews and Muslims. What happened was an act of administrative incompetence and not malice.

Stephen Hoffman , St Albans    

Synagogue woes

I was most upset to read in your paper last week that a vast 21-storey skyscraper could be built next to Bevis Marks Synagogue. It will be forever changed by having a massive modern edifice looming over it.

I have spent a lot of time over the years at Bevis Marks and have happy memories of visiting it as a child. How sad that future generations may not be able to enjoy it in the same way.

I hope your readers make their views known to the developers so that their plans are shelved.

Daniel Adleborn, By email