Resilience is not a security strategy

In 1936, it took just days for the government to legislate in response to the violence surrounding the Battle of Cable Street. In 2025, several months after Jews were attacked in Manchester on Yom Kippur, we have had warm words, we have had funding for security, and reviews are ongoing, but we are still waiting. Waiting for concrete action to banish antisemitism from our streets and root extremism out of our society. The contrast is impossible to ignore and impossible to justify.

How many times can the snooze button be pressed before the alarm is finally heard?

This year alone, Jewish communities have been attacked in Washington DC, Boulder, and Manchester. Now, at least 16 people have been murdered and more than 40 injured by two Islamist gunmen who opened fire at a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach.

For Jews around the world, this was not a distant tragedy. We are a small and deeply connected community. The first victim, London-born father of five Rabbi Eli Schlanger, grew up in Temple Fortune and was related to rabbis serving communities across the UK. This attack may have taken place thousands of miles away, but it landed painfully close to home.

Here in Britain, the Jewish community is still reeling from the murderous attack on Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur. That should have been the line in the sand. Instead, Jewish leaders have been left lobbying, pleading and waiting.

The calls to violence we have seen on our streets, on campus and online for the last two years are not rhetorical. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others are active and emboldened. Their ideology does not stop at Israel’s borders, and neither does the violence it inspires. They pose a very real threat to the Jewish community as well as to the wider British public.

On social media, on university campuses, in our workplaces, on the news and in Parliament, Jews and Israelis are frequently labelled colonisers, white supremacists, baby killers, and genocidal maniacs. This language is not harmless.  It fuels hatred and turns Jews thousands of miles away from the Middle East into acceptable targets.

Hatred of Jews has become normalised worldwide. Warm words, condemnations and prescheduled “Happy Chanukah” posts are not sufficient. British Jews should be able to live our lives, practise our faith and celebrate our festivals without fear. That requires a serious and sustained effort to confront antisemitic extremism wherever it appears and the political courage to update legislation that is no longer fit for purpose.

Chanukah tells a story of resilience: of the Maccabees’ miraculous victory over the Seleucid Empire and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. So, while we call for action from the government, Jews will continue, as we always have, to choose light over darkness and joy over fear. We will not let hatred and violence define us. As the late Rabbi Sacks Z”L taught us, “The only sane response to antisemitism is to monitor it, fight it, but never let it affect our idea of who we are. Pride is always a healthier response than shame.”

But resilience is not a security strategy, and pride alone does not protect families in synagogues or students on campus.

This is the wake-up call. If there is a genuine commitment to counter antisemitism, extremism and violence, then the time for statements and reviews has passed. The time for urgent legislative reform, enforcement and meaningful action is now.

The snooze button has been pressed too many times. Act now before the alarm rings again.

• Debbie Fox is the interim CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council