The panel, composed of Rabbi Jonathan Romain of Progressive Judaism, Michael Rowe of Orthodox Judaism and Rachel Tax of Reform Judaism, shared their experiences and thoughts on life as a Jew in Britain today. Overall, there as an agreement that things have gotten worse, but they are still good for Jews in Britain.
This event was held off the back of IIFL’s August attitudes tracker that, with a booster set of 215 Jews, showed that Jewish people are least happy with the presentation of their faith in the media (54%), are least likely to feel free to practise their faith in the UK (47%) but are also overwhelmingly likely to say their faith is bound up with their cultural heritage (83%).
Panellists shared their experiences of life as a Jew in Britain, both positive and negative, and left the attendees with the impression that there is still hope for a good life for Jews in the UK.
Rabbi Jonathan said:
“There’s always a concern about underlying levels of anti-Semitism which then get brought to the fore whenever there’s trouble in the Middle East or tensions over Israel. [7th October] actually affected personal relations with non-Jewish friends; sometimes people told me they actually lost friendships over it.”
Michael Rowe said:
“I think one positive thing we can take from the events that happened after October the 7th is the fact that the UK Jewish community is now much more unified across the denominations. However, as a visible Jew, while I didn’t experience any anti-Semitism for many years, I would always sort of figuratively and literally look over my shoulder, and that has massively increased since October the 7th.”
Rachel Tax said:
“There’s lots of minority groups in Blackpool and that makes it quite unique in some ways. We’re quite protected as far as anti-Semitism goes; we’ve had a lot of police engagement after October, with the police reaching out as they did with many communities at the time.”
For any further information or commentary, please contact Dr Jake Scott, secretary for the Institute.
Dr Jake Scott
jake.scott@iifl.org.uk
Notes for editors:
- Please link any mention of the Institute or IIFL to our homepage: www.iifl.org.uk
- Whitestone Insight interviewed 2,279 UK adults online between 31st July and 4th August 2024. Data were weighted to be representative of all UK adults. Whitestone Insight is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
- The data set for the August tracker can be found here.
- The survey included a booster sample of 215 Jews.
- Key statistics:
- 47% of Jews agreed with the statement “The UK is a place where I feel completely free to practise my religious beliefs without fear or intimidation.”
- 66% of Jews agreed with the statement “The media have appeared to present some religions more negatively than others in the last four weeks.”
- 83% of Jews agreed with the statement “My faith is bound up with my cultural heritage.”