In the wake of the Manchester synagogue attack, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has delivered a stark warning that Britain has allowed antisemitism to become entrenched in public life.
“Today, being a Jew in Britain will feel lonely and scary,” he wrote, adding that the killings were “the product of years of rampant antisemitism” tolerated by what he described as a “pathetically weak and cowardly elite class.”
Mr Jenrick said the threat has become all too personal. “I am a Christian. But my wife happens to be Jewish. This week I received an email. It threatened I would have my wife raped and my children shot or starved. ‘That’s what you deserve. You Zionist pig.’ The individual was so confident there would be no repercussions that he gave his name.” He argued that such threats, and the failure to respond decisively, help explain why so many Jewish families now question whether Britain remains a safe home.
Mr Jenrick accused universities, public institutions and the justice system of turning a blind eye to Jew-hatred, and said that without serious action “families will be thinking about their future here and whether they are safe.”
Here is Mr Jenrick’s full statement in his own words:
Today, being a Jew in Britain will feel lonely and scary. I am appalled by the extraordinary violence visited upon our streets in Manchester, but I can’t say I am surprised.
For years the Community Security Trust has been training thousands of volunteers to provide security outside synagogues for a moment like this. Their warnings have largely fallen on deaf ears.
This attack didn’t come out of a clear sky. It is the product of years of rampant antisemitism. We saw it go mainstream under Jeremy Corbyn. But even after his departure from front-bench politics, it never went away.
Antisemitism reached unbelievable levels after October 7th. Back then MPs egged on the hate marches in London that were peppered with extremism and antisemitism. When rabid antisemitism goes unchallenged time after time across our society, tragic attacks like the one today are the destination.
In the coming days we will see the ritual condemnation of the attack. The tweets will be copied and pasted from the last incident, the empty “I stand with” graphics ready to be deployed and public buildings to be illuminated again.
But warm words ring hollow when no action follows. For years radicalisation has gone unchallenged. It has been allowed to grow and grow by a pathetically weak and cowardly elite class. The capitulation of so many of our institutions to antisemitism have made Jewish Brits feel like second class citizens.
Our universities have allowed antisemitism to fester. We have seen Jewish students have swastikas on their doors; universities stand by antisemitic professors. The violent chant to “Globalise the intifada” has been made fashionable by left-wing students who consider antisemitism to be the one acceptable form of racism.
Last year an Islamic charity in Nottingham hosted a vile sermon in which a trustee said “the hour will not begin until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until a Jew hides behind a rock or a tree.” The Charity Commission responded to this call to violence against the Jews with merely a warning.
We even see it in the NHS, too. This week a doctor, who is also a member of Palestine Action, launched into an unhinged rant that the Royal Free Hospital was a “Jewish supremacy cesspit” and that the UK is “occupied and controlled by Jewish supremacy”. “I don’t condemn Hamas. I don’t condemn October 7”, she said. The medical tribunal has not suspended her.
At times our justice system has barely given antisemitism a slap on the wrist. When people paraded through Whitehall with images glorifying the Hamas paragliders, they were let off with a conditional discharge. Tam Ikram, deputy chief magistrate and a judicial appointments commissioner, turned a blind eye and said that he “did not find that they were seeking to show any support for Hamas”.
I am a Christian. But my wife happens to be Jewish. This week I received an email. It threatened I would have my wife raped and my children shot or starved. “That’s what you deserve. You Zionist pig.” The individual was so confident there would be no repercussions that he gave his name.
I am used to it now. I have had antisemitic death threats posted through my letterbox and delivered to my office. It is now water off a duck’s back. They will not silence me. And nor will attacks like we saw today silence the Jewish community.
Today, being a Jew in Britain will feel lonely. Families will be thinking about their future here and whether they are safe. They should not live like this. We cannot live like this. We are not helpless victims. We can choose to root out this cancer if our leaders actually care. I know where I stand.
By Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor, Robert Jenrick.
