The number of antisemitic incidents recorded in the UK last year was the highest ever smashing through the previous worst ever record of violence, property damage, abuse and threats directed at members of Britain’s 300,000-strong Jewish population.
Last week, the UK comic actress, Maureen Lipman known for her role as a proud Jewish mother in a series of British Telecom adverts, has said the sharp rise in antisemitic attacks in Britain may prompt her to leave the country to either the US or Israel. There has been heightened concern too amongst Jewish communities across Europe following the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris last month and the subsequent targeting of a kosher supermarket which left four Jewish shoppers dead.
At the time Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told French and European Jews they would be welcomed with “open arms” if they chose to emigrate to Israel. However this view wasn’t shared by the head of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, who said that it risked “severely weakening and damaging the Jewish communities that have the right to live securely wherever they are”.
