Prefer Jewish News on Google
Sir Simon Schama launched a blistering attack on Ed Miliband last night after he was pictured shaking hands with Iran’s foreign minister despite allegations of Tehran links to plots against the UK and British Jews.
The historian and broadcaster was speaking in London to mark the publication of his Jewish Quarterly essay, “Jew-Hatred, the latest edition”, just a day after Andy Burnham said there were strong indications Iran played a role in last weekend’s incident at RAF Fairford.
Sir Simon said: “Any foreign secretary, who went out of his way to shake the hand of the foreign minister of the Republic of Iran, whose regime murdered 40,000 people, has not got the authority to sermonise about anything, ever again!”
Interviewed by author Natalie Livingstone in front of a packed audience of nearly 500 people at the Nobu Hotel, he acknowledged Miliband told his party’s conference this week that the UK stood with Israel against its enemies. But the acclaimed historian suggested there was far more gusto behind what he described as his “performative” statement that Labour had been wrong and pro-Palestinian campaigners right over the war. “Could votes have been an issue? Oh, surely not!”, he asked sarcastically.
During the hour-long event, the audience — who included former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, broadcaster Jon Sopel and novelist Santa Sebag Montefiore — heard that the date of the event, October 1, marked 80 years since the judgment in the Nuremberg trial of the leading Nazis who perpetrated the Holocaust.
Together, Livingstone, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Nuremberg Women, and Sir Simon unpicked the essence of the current wave of antisemitism. As he puts it in his essay: “For all the chants, this paroxysm of rage is, at its ideological core, not about Palestine, Israel or even the Jews. The hatred is about the haters: a failure of self-recognition; a displacement of the obligation to make amends.”
He said he had initially been moved to write as he had witnessed as a professor at Columbia University in the US, a gradual worsening of the climate post-October 7, when instead of the sympathy for those murdered, he saw swastikas in the student dormitories and the “extreme fright” of Jewish students.
He noted what he said was “the obligation to be a good Jew, which became conditional on denouncing Israel.” He accused the Free Palestine supporters of “Jew-hatred, based on a TikTok level of stupidity,” adding that “they want to lie on a a bed of fanatical ignorance”. He was downbeat about the idea that antisemitism in the Diaspora might dissipate if there is a change of government in Israel this month.
On the Middle East, Sir Simon rounded on Israel’s far-right ministers as far divorced from the founding ideals of Israel and described himself as “a pro-Palestinian Zionist”, highlighting his admiration for Jewish and Arab schools project Hand in Hand and EcoPeace, which he believed illustrated the possibility of co-operation.
It was Sir Simon’s mother, according to his essay, who predicted as early as 1990 that “it’s over — the good times, the safe times for Jews here [in the UK]”. But while he writes that “a whole generation of Jewish children is growing up…. robbed of the freedom to express their ethnic cultural and religious identity in public”, nevertheless he deplored a narrative which described Jews as either “victims” or “bullies”.
He decried the fact that there is currently no permanent home for London’s Jewish Museum following its closure in Camden in 2023 and made a passionate call for additional resources, suggesting this was at least as important as the new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre planned for Westminster. He suggested that “at least once a month” schools should devote a day to Jewish history. “Enough of Henry [expletive] the Eighth!” he said drily, adding that there should also be a day devoted to Islamic history.
In a powerful message, he urged the audience not to leave Britain despite the current climate, saying gatherings like it, Jewish Book Week and the programmes at JW3, were part of the answer to hate.
Two of Sir Simon’s most lavish and popular books, The Story of the Jews, were published in 2013 and 2017. He revealed that a children’s version, created with Ivor Baddiel, is to be published next year as a way of reacquainting the younger generation with the fullness of the Jewish story.
Livingstone urged the audience to join her mission to get as many copies as they could of “Jew-Hatred” into schools all over the UK.
Keep community journalism free.
Jewish News is free for everyone. No paywall. No barriers. Just trusted journalism for anyone who wants to stay connected to Jewish life in Britain.
If you value that, please support us.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Every day, we report on the issues that matter to our community. We celebrate achievements, support charities, challenge antisemitism and ensure Jewish voices are heard more widely.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help us continue to:
- Report on the stories shaping Jewish life in the UK and beyond
- Bring our community together through shared stories, events and campaigns
- Celebrate the people, culture and moments that define our community
- Support organisations doing vital work across Jewish Britain
You can make a one-off donation or become a regular supporter. Every contribution helps keep our journalism free, independent and accessible to all.
If everyone who values Jewish News gave a small amount, it would make a real difference to our future.
