Antisemitism: Never again?

The lad in the middle of the photo accompanying this article is me. The boy on the bicycle to my right is Moti. The boy on my left is Zami.

I last saw them when I was 11 years old after moving house from Stamford Hill in London, still home to a significant Jewish population. Though a brief friendship in the scheme of things, these Jewish boys played an important role in my formation, life and mission as a Christian. Seldom a day has passed since our first meeting that I have not thought of or prayed for Moti and Zami - and Asher, Joshua, Samuel, Yitzahk and many others whose names sadly now escape me.

A 'disturbing rise' in antisemitism

Those memories feel heavier these days. For at least a decade, I have had cause in personal discussion and pastoral ministry, in writing and in preaching, to comment on a disturbing rise in antisemitism across our nation. These concerns predate the current movement of, sometimes accidental but nonetheless still functional, solidarity with the terrorist entity known as Hamas, but have certainly intensified since the barbaric events of October 7, 2023.

Anecdotal evidence

Rising antisemitism is observable anecdotally. Why in recent years, has there been a significant exodus of Jews from the UK - including, I later learned, my friends? Why am I more likely to see heavy security outside synagogues than any other place of worship?

We’ve seen video footage of angry white men from the Right screaming “Jews will not replace us” - the province of such chanting perhaps made it easier for some to critique. However, a more visually multicultural crowd has arisen largely from the political Left that has a variety of approaches and unites a broad spectrum of allies: from the cognitively dissonant Queers for Palestine, to Islamists calling for supporters to “Globalise the Intifada”.

Some do not hide their open hatred of Jews, with genocidal chants of “Khaybar, Khaybar Ya Yahud”. Others cunningly obscure such prejudice with more political concerns opposed to “Zionism” and for “Free Palestine”. “We’re not against Jews” they say - so what then is the connection that provoked them to picket a Menorah lighting I attended last year? Or why was security on high alert when I took my parents to see an outdoor theatrical production of the Ukrainian Jewish classic, Fiddler on the Roof?

Whatever the tactic or message, the result is ultimately the same: Jews are less safe. This May, a young man flew from his home in Chicago to Washington DC where he waited outside an event for young Jews, held at a Jewish museum, before firing 21 times at a young couple - Jewish followers of Jesus - brutally murdering them before making a gloating confession to authorities at the scene.

The deluge of antisemitic content and behaviour, from the casual to the extreme, has become so normalised that the latest single this month from the world’s wealthiest musician, Kanye West, registered as little more than a blip, despite the title: “Heil, Hitler”.

None of this is news. But among the sea of voices crying out legitimately against a variety of prejudices, it seems - as David Baddiel wrote in 2021 - “Jews Don’t Count”. It seems that “listen to global voices” extends only to certain global voices, ignoring and thereby harming our Jewish neighbours and their lived experiences.

Statistical evidence

Building a case purely with anecdotes is inadequate. The empirical data, doubtless incomplete due to under-reporting or mis-categorising, nonetheless demonstrates a surge in recorded antisemitic incidents.

The highest tally of antisemitic incidents for a 12 month period was reported by Community Security Trust (CST) in 2023. The second highest tally was recently recorded - for 2024^[1]. Even acknowledging the nature and scale of the problem seems a challenge for some, but acknowledgment is the first step towards addressing the problem.

Why does this matter? Here are three reasons, of many that could be given: humanity, Christianity, and humility.

1. Humanity
   It is not always an appreciated nuance, but despite popular usage Jews are not necessarily adherents to a particular religious system: they are first and foremost a people. All people are made in the image of God and have intrinsic dignity, value, and worth. We may not all come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but we all have the same ultimate patriarchs, Noah, and before him Adam, and the same Creator: the Lord God, who in the beginning made the heavens and the earth and everything in them. We may belong to different ethnic groups or have different beliefs, but we breathe the same breath, bleed the same blood, shed the same tears - and all of us have eternity written on our hearts.
2. Christianity
   We literally worship the greatest Jew who ever lived, and follow the teaching of a group of Jewish men from a cross-section of first-century Judaean society who proclaimed the sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and inaugurated kingdom of Messiah. Murderous atrocities have been committed against Jews in the name of Christ - even the ones who follow Christ! But “the one who says, 'I have come to know him,' and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” (1 John 2:4). As a Baptist Christian, I am grateful for the distinctive example of my theological forbears on behalf of the religious liberty - and legal residency – of British Jews against a centuries-long culture of marginalisation, oppression, violent persecution, and deportation.
3. Humility
   The people who God has looked at from eternity and chosen to savingly love include Jews (Romans 9-11), and Gentile followers of Jesus are clearly told not to be arrogant towards Jews. How can we - indeed, how will we - sincerely and impactfully hold out the good news of Jesus with a proud and thereby prejudiced heart? We should instead be amazed by the plan and power of God, and how He continues to work for the salvation of all who believe in numerous mysterious ways (Romans 11:18-20).

This is the baseline. But perhaps we need to go back to the basics, educate ourselves and others, and truly commit to the oft-signalled post-Holocaust sentiment: Never again.

^{[1] https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/2025/02/12/antisemitic-incidents-report-2024}