Rabbi David Meyer describes the hatred of Israel and the Jews on the streets of London, which has increased since the beginning of the war in Israel: “In the center of the city it is almost impossible to walk like this, when you see that I am Jewish, without someone yelling at me, ‘Indian’, ‘genocide’, all kinds of things. We arrived To the point that there are places where it’s dangerous to go with a kippah or a Star of David. When I went to Manchester I wore a kippah in the center of London, but I don’t think there’s a single Jew here who didn’t wonder if we were coming to the end The days of the Jewish community in England”.
Rabbi David Mayer is the CEO of PaJeS (Partnerships for Jewish Schools), which unites many Jewish schools in England. In 2020 he received the Order of the British Empire for his activities in the field of education. Recently he had the privilege of raising the diaspora beacon on Independence Day in Israel.
Rabbi Meir is currently working in collaboration with the UnitEd program – a project of the Diaspora Ministry, whose goal is to support Jewish schools around the world in order to strengthen the students’ Jewish identity, and strengthen their connection to the local community and the State of Israel. The program offers administrators and educational teams lesson plans, educational content, teacher training and more. Following the Iron Swords War, a project for strategic change in dozens of Jewish schools in England was launched a few weeks ago in London, led by the UnitEd organization alongside the Chief Rabbi of England and the organizations PaJeS and United Synagogue.
We are fighting three wars. One war is Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah. The second war is in the Diaspora, against anti-Semitism, and I think it is a completely different war. The third war is the war for our Jewish identity, and especially for our children.
My parents came from India to England in the 1950s. We felt like part of the English community. I could be Jewish, religious, Zionist – and also part of English society. Now the feeling is different. There are ignoramuses shouting every week, from October until now. There was nothing in England until today that was so important to people that they would demonstrate like this. Even on Brexit (Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, SH) they did not demonstrate like this. I believe that the majority of the public in England does not agree with the demonstrators. The problem is that there is silence. People do not speak and do not say that it is wrong.”
“The demonstrators in the streets say it’s not anti-Semitism but anti-Zionism. They found chants that the police allow them to say, but all Jews know it’s anti-Semitism, and a step above anti-Zionism. When they shout ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ or ‘Intifada now’, And when they destroy pictures of abductees, it’s not because it’s Israel. They can shout at the ultra-Orthodox just like they shout at me, there’s no difference.”
“Most of them don’t understand what they are saying and shouting. They don’t know and don’t know how complex the situation in the Middle East is. They call for a ‘ceasefire now’ and they don’t care at all about the abductees and the situation in Israel. They think it’s an ‘apartheid state,’ and we know that’s not true. They They say the Israelis are committing ‘genocide’, but when Iran sent hundreds of missiles and drones to Israel, isn’t that an attempt to commit genocide? And when Hamas wants to kill all the Jews, and say time and time again that this is what they want to do? This is not anti-Zionism, this is anti-Semitism.”
As an example of public opinion leaders who adopt anti-Israel positions, he mentions the famous former soccer player and current commentator, Gary Lineker. “Gary Lineker speaks against what Israel is doing. He doesn’t understand anything – but suddenly everyone listens to him and what he says becomes important. Young people take ideas from TikTok and don’t really understand the situation. We have reached a very dangerous and complicated situation.”
“I met people filming the beacon ceremony, and there was a strong feeling that we were one people. There were religious and non-religious, Jews and Arabs – everyone stood together. We have the possibility to work together, even if we have opposing views.” This is how he concludes
