Every so often, I write here about the plight of our fellow Jews in the Diaspora. I feel as though we have a collective blind spot, that we are simply failing to grasp what is happening to them. And so, when my anger boils over and images of the 1930s begin flashing before my eyes, I turn to this column.
This week, I came across a post on X, formerly Twitter, by a British father describing an antisemitic incident involving his daughter. This was not simply a case of someone shouting abuse in the street. It was institutional antisemitism.
During an open evening at his daughter's school, a Muslim family arrived for a tour, and the girl was assigned to show them around. When the father of the visiting family noticed the Star of David she was wearing, he angrily refused to allow "a Jew" to give them the tour and demanded that another student take her place.
Rather than condemn the father and ask him to leave, the headteacher told the girl to step aside and assigned a non-Jewish student to escort the family. Not a single member of the school staff approached the humiliated girl as she stood there sobbing. Only a few other parents came to comfort her.
The following day, the girl's father informed the headteacher that they were withdrawing their daughter from the school immediately. The family also decided to leave Britain altogether. They considered moving to either the US or Israel, but ultimately chose Israel, fearing that America was heading down the same path as Britain.
"This is what we live in now," the father concluded. "This is the new normal." And that is indeed the new normal in Britain, and not just there.
I sent the post to a friend in London. Not only was he unsurprised, but he told me about incidents far worse than this one.
Jewish pupils forced to sit their final exams in isolation for their own safety. Schools advising parents to withdraw their children. Worksheets requiring children to decide whether Jerusalem is in Israel or "Palestine." Jewish university students physically assaulted because of their religion. Students facing disciplinary proceedings simply for waving an Israeli flag on campus. Jewish professors pursued across university grounds by masked individuals. Lecturers taking part in anti-Israel demonstrations and making antisemitic remarks in their classrooms.
I could go on, but you get the picture. The British branch of StandWithUs, the international Israel education and advocacy organization, documents these incidents, and the accounts are chilling.
School and university administrations are not merely failing to address antisemitism. They have become part of the problem. Some are active and enthusiastic participants. Others go along with it reluctantly. Still others remain silent, afraid of the mob and the demands of political correctness. This is institutional antisemitism, not a series of isolated incidents.
The West is failing to protect Jews
Last week, members of Britain's Green Party adopted a series of antisemitic resolutions.
The first declared Zionism to be racism. The second abandoned the two-state solution in favor of establishing a democratic Palestinian state across all of "historic Palestine." The third, and perhaps most disturbing of all, effectively placed a target on the back of every Jew, wherever they may live. The party rejected protections for Jewish members belonging to synagogues that identify as Zionist, leaving them potentially exposed to disciplinary action.
This is Britain today, and the situation is similar in Canada, France and other countries. "It says a lot when you feel safer in a country where you're likely to spend a few hours in a bomb shelter than in one where you probably won't need to," the same father wrote.
But that is the reality. The West is failing to protect Jews, both as a community and as individuals. And we, here in the Jewish state, would do well to listen and extend a helping hand.
That, too, is the mission of our generation.
