Britain’s Jews are back from the brink.
Following the crushing electoral rejection and then resignation of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, this year’s Antisemitism Barometer data shows that two thirds of British Jews now believe that they have a long-term future in the UK and almost three in five now feel welcome in this country.
It is a reflection of the enormity of the underlying problem of antisemitism that these new findings — which still show that almost one fifth of British Jews do not feel welcome in this country — represent such vast improvements on the past two years.
This data indicates that the early signs of returning confidence are due to the removal of the threat that British Jews saw in Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party: of those who have considered leaving the UK in the past two years due to antisemitism, half referenced the defeat of Labour in the 2019 General Election or the removal of Mr Corbyn as its leader as having changed their mind.
Though a large swathe of the Jewish community has breathed a sigh of relief, the news is not entirely good. Nine months into Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour, British Jews still feel that the Party is tolerant of antisemitism (indeed, there has been a slight increase in the proportion of British Jews holding this opinion since last year).
Antisemitism in political parties, online, and in the institutions of civil society have left one fifth of British Jews still feeling unwelcome in this country — a return to the figures we polled in 2016 and 2017, before the Labour antisemitism scandal was fully acknowledged by some in the Jewish community.
Appallingly, almost half of British Jews now conceal visible signs of Judaism in public due to antisemitism — a record figure in our polling.
As our polling of the British public shows, there is reason for discomfort: almost half of the British public affirms at least one of the twelve antisemitic statements in our new Generalised Antisemitism Scale, which has been devised and implemented here for the first time by Dr Daniel Allington of King’s College London, Dr David Hirsh of Goldsmiths, and Louise Katz of the University of Derby.
Long before the rise of Mr Corbyn, Britain’s Jews were rightly concerned about surging antisemitism. Though Britain remains one of the best countries in the world in which to live as a Jew, our already-anxious community has been subjected to a harrowing ordeal by Mr Corbyn and his allies. As the Jewish minority begins to regain confidence, Britain cannot allow itself to be content with a return to a situation that was worrying to begin with.
Though this year’s Antisemitism Barometer shows improving confidence amongst British Jews, no modern, liberal nation should be content when almost a fifth of its Jews feel unwelcome and nearly half conceal their Judaism in public. We need firm action against antisemitism, not just in politics, but also in arenas that have long been problematic, such as universities and social media.
The recommendations made in this report are mostly easy to implement and have been proposed by us for years. They would make a vast difference to the experience of British Jews. The time for action is now.
