Another day, another antisemitic attack in the UK. Today, it was a stabbing spree in Golders Green, London’s best-known Jewish neighborhood. Last month, in the same area, assailants torched ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity. Less than two weeks ago, there was an attempted arson attack against a synagogue in North London. Weeks before that, two men were charged with spying on Jewish schools and cultural centers. There was, of course, the Manchester synagogue stabbing on Yom Kippur last year. Last week, an Orthodox Jewish man in Slough was assaulted while on a job, his assailant calling him a baby killer and vile Jew.

Every time another incident occurs — and by this point it’s a weekly affair — the response is to gallantly sloganize. The Prime Minister is appalled. The Home Secretary finds it “abhorrent”. Even Zack Polanski took a moment off from fulminating against “Zionists” to offer thoughts on this “horrendous” event. The British establishment collectively murmurs what sounds like a formulation propelled straight from a McKinsey boardroom presentation: “Antisemitism has no place in Britain.”

Antisemitism in Britain is not only entrenched but incentivized, seemingly granted its own special legal carve-out. In 2021, on the very same road where today’s incident took place, a convoy of blacked-out cars rolled down exhorting followers to murder Jewish mothers and rape their daughters. Surely, at a time when an errant tweet can result in a years-long prison sentence, this would merit harsh punishment. Wrong. All charges were dropped.

What about the man who went on another completely separate stabbing spree in Golders Green in 2024? No jail time. And the flags of proscribed terror organizations proudly flown at the pro-Palestine rallies in London? Nah. In fact, the only people who seem to get apprehended are Jews, including the lawyer arrested by the Metropolitan Police for wearing a Star of David necklace, or the “openly Jewish” activist threatened with arrest on account of his mere presence in the vicinity of a pro-Palestine march.

A friend and fellow school parent who volunteers his time guarding synagogues and schools — yes, friends, that is what Jewish parents now do with their spare time — recently told me one of the threats that Jewish sites face is car rammings.  I asked why the council doesn’t install bollards. The simple answer, apparently, is that at around £100,000, it’s too expensive.

Let’s be clear: antisemitism in Britain is no longer a bug but a feature. You don’t refuse to arrest, charge, prosecute or imprison those who commit the most egregious cases because you’re striving earnestly to rid society of this hatred. You don’t provide the Jewish community with hi-vis vests and wish them well if you truly care about Jewish lives when they’re under daily threat. You don’t turn a blind eye to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or allow the Muslim Brotherhood to flourish.

It’s tempting to see the way Britain treats antisemitism as the racial equivalent to shoplifting — a “we can sympathize with those who do it” approach that overwrites concern for the victim with empathy for the perpetrator. There’s something to this, but it may be too generous by half. The reality we’re now colliding with is that Jews are quickly becoming the UK’s national auto-da-fé.

The attacks will go on — on the streets, at the marches, at our synagogues, at our schools. There will be stabbing sprees and hate convoys and arson attacks. It will happen. The politicians will say the words, and then they will do nothing.

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Ashley Rindsberg is author of The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’ Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History

AshleyRindsberg

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