When I was a child, learning about the Holocaust, I used to believe that what happened to the Jews in Germany could never happen here. My reasons for this were vague and cultural; Dad’s Army, comic operetta contrasted with Wagner, the sheer silliness of Hitler’s strutting. No country with a sense of humour could ever surely even follow a Hitler type to the pub, let alone into a world war. Now I’ve put away childish things, and though I have a youthful spirit, every day I feel another year older. Because in my lifetime, in my country, people are tormenting the Jews.

There is a sadistic feeding frenzy to this anti-Jewish crusade

It was a wonderful feeling that day in 1977 at the anti-National Front demo in New Cross when I nearly got trampled to death by a police horse – easily the best incident of my 17-year life thus far. To the right of me, Rastafarians; to the left of me a beautifully-dressed old man waving a walking stick in the direction of the march and yelling ‘Jew-baiters – damn Jew-baiters!’ United in the cause of anti-racism, we knew who the enemy was. But now the Jews are seen as every bit as bad as the National Front by many of those who would have been on my side then.

To have lived through the routing of right-wing anti-Semitism and to see the new left-wing kind thriving really does make you feel that you have had a long life – and that you are perhaps living in rather too interesting times. As I wrote for The Spectator a fortnight after the Hamas pogroms of October 7:

‘Anti-Semitism ­– the socialism of fools – is a shapeshifter supreme. The oldest hatred has taken many forms, and is enjoyed by Christians and Muslims, communists and fascists alike. Now it can add another string to its bow. Anti-Semitism has become deeply fashionable. You might say it’s all the rage. Years ago I coined the phrase ‘fresh’n’funky anti-Semitism’, to define a new strain of the disease which had broken free of its stale, pale, male origins and become quite the belle of freshers week balls.’

This week’s figures anti-Semitic racism in Britain recorded that ‘incidents’ in educational settings rose ‘sharply’ with an increase of 232 per cent in schools and 203 per cent in universities compared to 2022. In an essay written over 140 years ago, Emma Lazarus said:

‘Within recent years… in our schools and colleges, even in our scientific universities, Jewish scholars are frequently subjected to annoyance on account of their race…all the patience and humanity, which the Jews have manifested in return for centuries of persecution, have been thus far inadequate to eradicate the profound antipathy engendered by fanaticism and ready to break out in one or another shape at any moment of popular excitement.’

Excitement is the often overlooked element when it comes to anti-Semitism – an excitement that is almost sexual. There is a sadistic feeding frenzy to this anti-Jewish crusade, as though the rape rampage of Hamas made the cause of anti-Semites more, not less, worth rallying around. The ‘Paraglider Girls’ convicted this week appeared like overgrown Girl Guides, their grim insignia a twist on badges for Kayaking or being an Emergency Helper – only evil. Though it’s admirable (and typical) that some Jewish community leaders believe that it’s possible to ‘educate’ people out of anti-Semitism, we’ve seen how little actual knowledge matters on this subject, about everything from the ancient origins of Israel to how Palestinian leaders spend all that foreign aid. On the contrary, the revelling in ignorance and unfairness is part of the appeal of picking on Jews. As Alex Ryvchin said on X in December:

‘There is an old Jewish saying: the anti-Semite does not accuse the Jew of stealing because he thinks he stole something. He does it because he enjoys watching the Jew turn out his pockets to prove his innocence. The rape deniers know women were raped, mutilated and tortured. They just don’t care. And they are enjoying seeing our wounded and violated people have to turn out our pockets to prove we’re not liars.’

The fact that the pro-Palestinian marches started before Israel actually retaliated was a big tell; these people weren’t marching against Israel defending itself, but in favour of Israel being attacked. Unless they all had access to a big old time-travel machine, of course.

Another component of anti-Semitism is envy; those with little to be proud of – be they the groomers of Rochdale or the spoilt scions of the ruling class – suddenly have the chance to feel special. Too afraid to take on the actual ruling classes – indeed, many of the pro-Palestine youth belong to that class, and I’m sure they’ll be availing themselves of their inheritances when the time comes – they have found in the Jews a handy group of proxies to torment, a group with very little history of violence or fighting back. (Until, pushed to the limit, they do, when the inevitable cries of ‘overreaction!’ occur.) The recent events at the Soho Theatre – not a place you’d generally expect to see Jews driven out by a baying mob – proved that this fashionable anti-Semitism is attractive to all sections of society. All they need in common is to be grudging and mediocre. And there are such a lot of them. The latest figures on anti-Semitism are the highest since records began 40 years ago. For the first time, which seems particularly sinister, CST recorded at least one incident in every police region in the UK, which means that anti-Semitism now exists in regions even where there are next to no Jews. That’s when it stops being ‘personal’ and becomes a political belief. We know what comes next.

Of course, the half-wits having such a good time tormenting British Jews are doing exactly what you’d think they didn’t want to happen: encouraging Jews to migrate back to their ancestral homeland. This has always been a hard one for the mouth-breathers of anti-Zionism to get their heads around, hence the observation of Amos Oz that ‘When my father was a young man in Vilna, every wall in Europe said, “Jews go home to Palestine.” Fifty years later, when he went back to Europe on a visit, the walls all screamed, “Jews get out of Palestine.”’

It’s interesting to compare the reaction of the British left to Israel with the state of Pakistan, founded a year before. ‘The Land of The Pure’ – to give it its Urdu name – is given a remarkably free ride. The inability of its founders to countenance living in a multi-religious nation caused the loss of immeasurable lives; their current persecution of Christians borders on the frenzied, while women live what can barely be described as ‘lives’ as we understand the word, with Pakistan ranking at 145 out of 146 countries on the Global Gender Gap Report 2022. (Only Afghanistan is lower!) Yet I see no concerned crowds marching in the street about the human rights abuses of millions of Pakistani people. No Jews, no news – no Jews, no abuse.

Looking back, I was unrealistic to believe that it couldn’t happen here; these islands certainly saw enough persecution of the Jews in ancient times. But I thought we’d left those times behind us. Now a new Medieval mob now stalks our streets, looking for the Jews. ‘Our ancestors didn’t fight and die for British Jews to be told to hide their Star of David in the street, for Rabbis to be chased into hiding. Nor did they fight and die for a country that arrests Christians silently praying or preaching in the street. We are betraying them’ wrote Emma Webb of the Free Speech Union recently.

Anyone who has seen the Met harassing the young gospel singer Harmonie London while guarding marchers screeching about jihad will find it difficult to believe that the institutions of this country have the nerve or intelligence to fight for Christian rights, let alone Jewish ones. A few brave ones aside, politicians won’t ultimately stand up for the Jews, as that would get in the way of their vote-counting. If it’s to be done, the people will need to do it – and it seems that the young generation may well already be lost. Of course their support for extraordinarily intolerant groups won’t end well for them, the ragbag tangle of the Funky Paraglider Fan Club, the Queers For Palestine, the Trans For Allah, the Feminists For Rape and the rest of the fresh’n’funky anti-Semitism Alliance. But they’ll deserve it.

The Jews don’t deserve it. They’ve been the most loyal and productive citizens imaginable. They’ve annoyed me so many times at meetings by insisting on singing the National Anthem when I wanted to hear only Hatikvah. But no good deed goes unpunished. It appears that we as a nation are prepared to bend over backwards to give succour to any old acid attacker or sex offender seeking sanctuary here, any amount of fake Christians or groomers of children – but not to make the Jews feel safe, after all they’ve done for us.

I believe in miracles, so I’d like to believe that this poisonous cloud will pass over us. But it’s likely that eventually ‘our’ Jews will leave, perhaps moving on to the New World, or to Israel after the war, and eventually my country will look back sadly as others have done before us, to the golden age of Jewish culture. They will be left wondering if we could have been braver in our defence of them. There’s nothing to do now but sit and wait and see whether this madness of Jew-hatred passes over us – or whether it settles like pollution in the air, infecting the brains of the young especially, until the last Jew is gone from Britain. I don’t look forward to that time, but if we don’t value them, we don’t deserve them. We’re a tough old country – we’ll soldier on. Shame, though – in both senses.