Key Takeaways
- The author’s grandparents fled Nazi Germany for Britain in July 1939, finding safety that later allowed the family to emigrate to the United States.
- Despite Britain’s historic role as a haven, antisemitic violence and harassment have surged in the UK, reaching 3,700 recorded incidents in 2025 for a Jewish population under 300,000.
- The spike in antisemitism began immediately after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, driven by enduring Jew‑hatred rather than by Israel’s military response.
- Similar trends are evident in the United States, where violent assaults on Jews hit their highest level since 1979, with Jews disproportionately targeted in hate‑crime statistics.
- Jewish politicians, communal institutions, and everyday Jews in both countries now face threats, harassment, and a climate of fear that compels many to conceal their identity.
- Political leaders in the UK and the US have largely remained silent or offered only perfunctory condemnations, leaving Jewish communities feeling abandoned.
- The author warns that the rising tide of antisemitism threatens the hard‑won sense of belonging and safety that Jewish families like his have enjoyed in Britain and America for generations.
Family Escape and Refuge
On the eve of World War II, while many nations—including the United States—still barred Jewish immigration, Britain granted asylum to the author’s grandparents in July 1939. They settled in London, where the author’s mother was born two years later. Eight years after that, the family moved to the United States, while the relatives they left behind perished in Nazi death camps. Britain’s temporary openness thus became a lifeline that saved the author’s lineage from the Holocaust.
Britain’s Mixed Legacy
Although Britain offered refuge to the author’s family, its broader wartime policy limited Jewish immigration to Palestine, then a British colony, effectively closing another escape route for European Jews. Nonetheless, for the author’s lineage, Britain remains a symbol of safety—a “safe haven from the horrors of the Holocaust.” This personal gratitude contrasts sharply with the current climate facing British Jews today.
Surge of Antisemitic Violence in the UK
Over the past two and a half years, antisemitic assaults and harassment have become routine for British Jews. In the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green, two Jewish men were stabbed by a knife‑wielding attacker, following a series of arson attempts on synagogues, Jewish businesses, and a Jewish ambulance service. In the autumn prior, a man attacked worshippers at a Manchester synagogue, resulting in two deaths.
Statistical Reality of UK Antisemitism
The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom in 2025—an alarming figure given that fewer than 300,000 Jews reside there. Prime Minister Kier Starmer, whose wife and children are Jewish, acknowledged that Jews now fear showing their identity, attending synagogue, sending children to school, or even revealing their faith at work. In response, the UK raised its national terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe.”
Misattributing the Cause
Some commentators blame the rise in antisemitism on anger over the war in Gaza, arguing that criticism of Israel’s policies spills over onto Diaspora Jews. The author rejects this as a flawed analogy: targeting Jews for Israel’s actions is akin to blaming Russian emigrants for the war in Ukraine, which does not occur. The true driver is deeper, enduring anti‑Jewish hatred.
The True Source: Enduring Jew‑Hatred
Data show the largest spike in British antisemitic incidents arrived immediately after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, before Israel’s military response unfolded. The Community Security Trust reported close to 4,300 incidents in 2023—a 2.5‑fold increase over the previous year—demonstrating that the murder of Israeli citizens, not Israel’s actions, put Diaspora Jews in harm’s way. Antisemitism, described as “the world’s oldest and most enduring hatred,” resurfaced with renewed vigor.
Targeting Jewish Leaders and Institutions
Jewish politicians across the UK and the US now face antisemitic slurs, death threats, and public harassment. In the United States, the Anti‑Defamation League reported that while overall antisemitic incidents declined slightly in the past year, violent assaults on Jews reached their highest level since 1979, with three fatalities—the first such deaths since 2019. Incidents include a Hezbollah‑inspired gunman who drove a car into a Jewish community center in Michigan and a surge of hate‑crime reports showing Jews comprising 60% of confirmed hate crimes in New York City despite being only 10% of the population.
Campus and Cultural Frontlines
Antisemitism has permeated American universities: Nazi swastikas were spray‑painted on a Jewish community center in Queens, and the student senate at New York’s New School voted to defund Hillel, the nationwide Jewish campus organization. Similar efforts aim to pressure Jewish students to renounce support for Israel. Even a benign “Sesame Street” tweet celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month was flooded with antisemitic and anti‑Israel messages, illustrating how the hatred infiltrates mainstream cultural spaces.
Political Silence and Communal Abandonment
While UK Prime Minister Starmer eventually spoke out after months of pleading from Jewish leaders, most American political leaders have remained largely silent. President Donald Trump offered little comment on the antisemitic spike, and Democratic politicians typically issue only “thoughts and prayers” statements after violent episodes, without substantive action. The author invokes Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland’s plea: where are the usual anti‑racism allies, celebrities, and public figures when British Jews are stabbed simply for being visibly Jewish? The same question applies to American cultural and political leaders.
Personal Reflection and Warning
For the author, America represents the refuge that Britain once gave his family—a place where they could live the American dream as Diaspora Jews without fear. Yet that sense of belonging is eroding on both sides of the Atlantic. The author warns that if the current trajectory continues, the hard‑won safety and freedom that Jewish communities have enjoyed for generations will dissolve into a nightmare, leaving Jews once again looking over their shoulders and hiding their identity.
Closing Appeal
The piece concludes with a poignant question: “Does anyone aside from American Jews care?” It challenges readers to recognize that the rise of antisemitism is not a distant or isolated phenomenon but a threat to the pluralistic ideals that both Britain and America purport to uphold. The call is clear: solidarity, vocal opposition, and concrete action are needed now to protect Jewish communities from sliding back into the darkness that once devastated the author’s family.