OPINION: The problem isn’t just antisemitism, it’s how we respond to it

A recent Board of Deputies study found that antisemitism is rife and has become normalised here in the UK. That is hardly news. The report also finds that Jews feel “tolerated at best but not respected.” Let us pause there.

It certainly defies belief that after 7 October, the most savage pogrom since the Holocaust, broadcast gleefully by terrorists, there should be a rise in antisemitism. That Glastonbury could turn its back on fellow music festival survivors, or that politicians ignore Hamas and Iran’s role while calling solely on Israel to “de-escalate”, is both blinkered and morally grotesque. This obsessive, one-sided focus on Israel, blind to wider threats and complexities, exposes, in some cases, a darker agenda to demonise the Jewish state. As the report notes, inconsistencies in policing, protest management, and incidents across the NHS, the BMA, and university campuses must be addressed clearly and swiftly.

However, everyone knows all this and must agree. Britain’s institutions must be cleansed of rhetoric and policy that enable antisemitism. Frankly, that has been said before. Such is the now hackneyed response to these countless articles, reports, and statistics on antisemitism. The BoD regularly expresses its “deep concern” with antisemitism but does little beyond that. There is a humorous X account, Is the EU Concerned?, which posts how the EU regularly recycles its statements, often its sole attempts at recourse of protest or repair, constantly reusing words such as “very, deeply, strongly, seriously, gravely, extremely, unprecedentedly. ” Our representative bodies must move beyond these trite statements.

Adopting the IHRA definition and reforming the police, NHS and educational attitudes would be a start to tackle this hatred. Institutional discrimination against Jews must be challenged forcefully, which, thankfully, the Campaign Against Antisemitism does well. The surge in antisemitic attacks following 7 October, when incidents reached record highs, must also be stopped. Jews must be safe in Britain, and thanks to the CST, we are.

Yet there is another type of problem lurking within these findings that we need to adjust our approach to tackle: that of Jews “not feeling respected”. The answer, at least in part, I believe, lies within ourselves.

Jews must be proud. We cannot merely “highlight hate crimes” or report on antisemitism. Even before this horrific, prolonged Israel-Gaza War, waxing about antisemitism seemed the full-time occupation and hobby of much of Anglo-Jewry’s leading activists.

Instead, we must pump ourselves up with some pride. I represent clients in the Orthodox sector, and we lobby for Jewish religious rights both in the UK and on the continent. We work to protect observances such as Shechita and Jewish education. In meetings with government, we speak not of victimhood but of a flourishing Jewish life in the UK and just how vibrant and vital it is. From our bustling synagogues, gourmet restaurants, and thriving, now oversubscribed, schools, another perspective on Jewish life in Britain can be seen. That it is booming. As communities, we are not only growing but genuinely successful here, thanks, as I have seen from the inside, to a listening ear from government departments, at least, after some lobbying, whether that be at DEFRA or the DfE.

True, there are some harrowing threats and public perceptions that, as Jews, we need to rise against and combat. But we need not just complain or speak of clamping down on antisemitism, although that is important. We must also walk with our backs upright and with respect in ourselves, with kippot on and Magen David necklaces out, being happy that we are Jews and that the Jewish lives we lead in this country, individually and communally, are so full of positivity. If we do that, then we begin to exude some respect ourselves, and perhaps, I pray, that may rub off onto society as a whole.

We must not just quell antisemitism but must kvell with pride about our Jewish communities and lives here in Britain. This can also be something to report on.

• Shimon Cohen is the Chair of Roath PR, Campaign Director of Shechita UK, and senior comms advisor to the Conference of European Rabbis.