Understanding Antisemitism in the UK
29 April 2021
Throughout March I took part in a course run by the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) called ‘Understanding Antisemitism in the UK’. I learned so much throughout the course and it opened my eyes to a lot of issues that people just don’t seem to notice most of the time. The things we talked about during the course touched on a lot of the themes that I’ve discussed before and so it seems fitting to write a blog post about it.
The first thing that I want to talk about is the fact that antisemitism is racism. There are no “ifs” and “buts” about it. If you make an antisemitic comment you are being racist. This was something that really struck me because I had never really thought of it in that way before. It was pointed out to us that the idea that Jews are a religious group is a Western centric view of their identity. Being Jewish is a culture; an ethnicity or nationality; a civilization; a faith; and a covenant. And so, being discriminatory or prejudice, or making an antisemitic comment is racist. I understand that some people might question this, but I would put that down to what we’ve been taught in school. We’re only really taught about Jewish people in Religious Studies or in History. We’re taught that they are a group of religious people that have experienced extreme persecution because of their faith. But that isn’t the case. You don’t have to be a practicing Jew to be Jewish. You can be atheist and still consider yourself to be Jewish. Take David Baddiel, for example. He considers himself both atheist and Jewish.
David Baddiel recently published a book called “Jews Don’t Count”, an eye-opening and provocative book that examines the ways in which British Jews are treated. One of the main themes throughout the book is the idea that antisemitism is considered a second class racism – that it isn’t as important as other forms of racism. And, to be quite frank, I agree with him. From everything I’ve seen recently, from the points he made in the book and from what I learned on the course, I have no doubt that antisemitism is not considered to be as serious or as important as other forms of racism. But, as I said before, racism is racism. I’m not going to go through all of the examples because there are too many. But think about it this way, in football Tottenham Hotspurs play in a predominantly Jewish area of London. And because of that they gained the nickname “Yids” (a shortened version of “Yiddish”) because the club was identified as a ‘Jewish club’ despite the vast majority of them not being Jewish. The word is used in Spurs chants, but it’s also used in chants by opposing clubs along with other hateful antisemitic chants. The point I’m trying to make is that the Y-word, is much the same as the N-word, a word which people wouldn’t dare utter unless they wanted to be considered racist. Baddiel talks about this issue in much more detail in his book, which I recommend.
I think it’s also important that I highlight the issues of antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. I’ve always placed myself on the left-wing of politics, but this was something that hurt a lot of people and needed challenging even by those who would normally be his supporter. One of the issues that stands out the most to me about the whole ordeal was some people’s reactions to it. If the comments made had been about other minority groups such as black people or Muslims, it’s highly likely that people’s reactions would have been different. That isn’t to say that there was no backlash against it, because there quite obviously was. But a lot of Corbyn supporters defended what was happening. These people, many of whom would consider themselves to be progressives, defended anti-Semitic elements within the Labour Party. This goes to show the way that many people view antisemitism: as a lesser form of racism that isn’t as serious or as important.
Another of the things that stood out to me during the course was conspiracy theories. People love a good conspiracy theory: fake moon landing, the earth is flat, the Illuminati…the holocaust didn’t happen. What people don’t realise is just how dangerous they are. In fact, a lot of Jewish persecution can be associated with conspiracy theories. But there’s one in particular that I want to discuss: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A lot of people might not have heard about this conspiracy theory before, but I’m almost 100% sure you will have heard of its effects. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a fabricated antisemitic book that describes the supposed Jewish plans for world domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903 before being translated into multiple languages and distributed worldwide. Henry Ford (you know, the guy that founded the Ford Motor Company) funded the printing of 500,000 copies of the book that were distributed throughout the United States in the 1920s. Some German teachers assigned it to be read by school children after the Nazis came to power. It was essentially used to justify what the Nazis did to Jews and to make Jews out to be greedy, domineering people that wanted world domination. Everything in the book is fabricated; it’s all a conspiracy theory. But, as this story shows, once a conspiracy theory has been started, it has a way of snowballing to the extent that it’s really hard to stop.
This same idea, that Jews are out to rule the world, is still an issue today. In fact, some of the newest conspiracy theories can be related to antisemitism, such as the New World Order. I mentioned the Pittsburgh shooting in my last blog post. Not long before the shooter, Robert Bowers, went into the synagogue he tweeted about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), believing it to be responsible for “slaughtering” his people. Again, his belief in a conspiracy theory led him to commit a horrific offence, and it was a conspiracy theory related to Jewish domination. This just goes to show how dangerous these conspiracies can be and just how prevalent they are in today’s society.
We learned about so many other things throughout the course with the HET, but these were the things that stood out most to me. We had talks from some incredibly influential people such as Baroness Neuberger and Lord John Mann, along with representatives from organizations such as Hope not Hate and the Community Security Trust. I have attached links to these organizations at the bottom of this blog, along with the link to David Baddiel’s book. If you have the time, they are all worth looking at.
I want to end this blog by making a few suggestions on how to combat antisemitism based on what I learned on the course. First, don’t be afraid about having a conversation about it, because every conversation that people have will have an impact in one way or another. If you are able to make someone realise that they’ve said something problematic, it is more likely that they won’t say it again. This brings me to my second point, if someone is being antisemitic, call them out for being racist. It might seem extreme but for some people, the best way to get through to them is to highlight the severity of what they’re saying. Calling someone an anti-Semite is unlikely to have the same effect on them as calling them racist, because no one wants to be called a racist.
~ Cerys
Website links:
Center for Countering Digital Hate
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