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The Myth of British Exceptionalism
Britain’s former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts after the general election results of the Islington North constituency were announced at a counting center in Islington, London, Dec. 13, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Hannah McKay.
JNS.org – That old image of the Jewish family with a packed suitcase at the ready in case they are compelled to suddenly leave their home has returned with a vengeance across Europe.
In France and Germany, home to sizable Jewish communities, the “Should we leave?” debate is raging in earnest. Both of these countries experienced record levels of antisemitic incidents in 2023, most of them occurring after the Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7 in southern Israel. Similar conversations are also being held in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Belgium and Spain—countries with tiny Jewish communities that are nevertheless enduring a painful rise in antisemitism.
What about Britain, though? It’s a pertinent question insofar as there has always been a “British exceptionalism” with regard to the continent. During World War II, the Nazis failed in their quest to conquer the British Isles, in contrast to the rest of Europe. After the defeat of Hitler, the British supported efforts to transform Europe into an economic and political community that eventually became the European Union, even joining it. Yet Britain was never fully at peace with its identity as a European state, and as is well known, the “Brexit” referendum of 2016 resulted in the country’s full-fledged withdrawal from the European Union.
When it comes to antisemitism, however, Britain is very much part of the European rule, not the exception. Again, that’s important because while the British don’t deny that antisemitism is present in their politics and culture, they don’t believe that it’s as venomous as its German or French variations. “It is generally admitted that antisemitism is on the increase, that it has been greatly exacerbated by the war, and that humane and enlightened people are not immune to it. It does not take violent forms (English people are almost invariably gentle and law-abiding),” wrote George Orwell in an essay, “Antisemitism in Britain,” penned towards the war’s close in April 1945.
At the same time, Orwell conceded that British antisemitism was “ill-natured enough, and in favorable circumstances, it could have political results.” To illustrate this point, he offered a selection of the antisemitic barbs that he had encountered over the previous year. “No, I’ve got no matches for you. I should try the lady down the street. She’s always got matches. One of the Chosen Race, you see,” a grumpy tobacconist informed him. “Well, no one could call me antisemitic, but I do think the way these Jews behave is too absolutely stinking. The way they push their way to the head of queues, and so on. They’re so abominably selfish. I think they’re responsible for a lot of what happens to them,” a “middle-class” woman said. Another woman, described by Orwell as an “intellectual,” refused to look at a book detailing the persecution of Jews in Germany on the grounds that “it will only make me hate them even more,” while a young man—a “near-Communist” in Orwell’s description—confessed that he had never made a secret of his loathing of Jews. “Mind you, I’m not antisemitic, of course,” he added.
I’d wager that were Orwell to tackle the same subject today, he would write a similar essay. The rhetoric he quotes echoes eerily in what we are hearing almost 80 years later, particularly the denial that recycling antisemitic tropes makes one an antisemite, as well as the digs against chosenness—because antisemites have never understood (or don’t want to understand) that Jewish “chosenness” is not about racial or ethnic superiority, but a duty to carry out a specific set of Divine commandments.
Last week, the Community Security Trust (CST), a voluntary security organization serving British Jews, issued its annual report on the state of antisemitism in Britain. The CST has been faithfully issuing these reports since 1984, and over the last few years, it has regularly registered new records for the number of offenses reported. 2023 was the worst year of all; there were a stomach-churning 4,103 incidents reported—an increase of 81% on the previous annual record in 2021, when 2,261 incidents were reported (largely due to that year’s conflict between Israel and Hamas for 11 days in May).
Instructively, the worst month in 2023 was October, in the days immediately following the rapes and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on that black day. Oct. 11 was, in fact, the worst day, with 80 incidents reported. As the CST pointed out, “[T]he speed at which antisemites mobilized in the U.K. on and immediately after Oct. 7 suggests that, initially at least, this increase in anti-Jewish hate was a celebration of the Hamas attack on Israel, rather than anger at Israel’s military response in Gaza.”
Of course, the present situation in the United Kingdom differs from Orwell’s time for two main reasons. Firstly, in 1945, there was no Jewish state, and antisemitism revolved around cruder tropes invoking supposed Jewish rudeness, clannishness, financial power and so forth. (Even so, Britain was also one of the first Western countries to experience antisemitic rioting linked to the Zionist movement and Israel; in 1947, after two British officers in Mandatory Palestine were executed by the Irgun, or “Etzel,” resistance organization, violence targeting Jewish communities broke out across the United Kingdom, thereby establishing the principle that all Jews, everywhere, are to blame for the alleged evils of Zionism.)
Secondly, in 1945 Britain was still largely a white, Christian society. In the interim, it has become far more diverse and is now home to nearly 4 million Muslims who constitute 6.5 percent of the population. Since the late 1980s—when the Iranian regime issued a fatwa calling for the death of the Anglo-Indian author Salman Rushdie, alleged to have slandered Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses—what was once a relatively docile population has become politically animated, with the Palestinian cause pushed front and center.
In the four months that have passed since the Hamas atrocities, with weekly demonstrations in support of Hamas in London and other cities, Muslim voices have been disproportionately loud in the opprobrium being piled not just on Israel, but on those Britons—the country’s Jewish community—most closely associated with the Jewish state. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every Muslim, and many of the worst offenders are non-Muslims on the left. Indeed, the Oct. 7 massacres have enabled the return to politics of a particularly odious individual whom I had forlornly believed had been banished to the garbage can of history; George Galloway, an ally of Hamas and one-time acolyte of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who is standing in the forthcoming parliamentary election in the northern English constituency of Rochdale for an outfit called the “Workers Party of Britain,” whose manifesto combines nationalism and socialism, but which would probably balk at the description “national socialist” in much the same way that some antisemites balk at the description “antisemitic.”
British Jews have weathered a great deal in recent years, especially the five years when the Labour Party, the main opposition, was led by the far-left Parliament member Jeremy Corbyn, who has since been turfed out of the party by his successor Sir Keir Starmer. Having survived that, the belief has spread that they can survive anything. But there’s another question to be asked: Is the effort worth it? Increasingly, and worryingly, growing numbers of British Jews are now answering “no.”
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On Yom HaShoah, Three New Holocaust Films Are Worth Watching
The entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
As we mark Yom HaShoah this year, three Holocaust films stand out.
The first is a gripping drama about the first Jewish escape from a death camp. The World Will Tremble is directed by Lior Geller and features excellent acting by Oliver-Jackson Cohen, who plays Solomon, a Jew who makes an unlikely escape from Chelmno. The cast of Jews and Germans is all stellar but Geller, who wrote and directed the film, is the real star. Geller crafted a gripping film that soaks you in a bath of horror and despair only to embrace you with a towel of freedom and hope. It is an impressive movie that is full of heart, and tells a story that is not well known.
UnBroken is a documentary that shares the seemingly implausible story of seven Jewish siblings who survived the Holocaust, largely due to gentile farmers who chose to hide them. It is directed with deft and passion by Beth Lane, who goes to Germany to see the places where her family, including her mother, hid.
Unbroken explains how Lane’s grandmother was extremely daring, and when she loved a Christian man, she got him to convert. There is some unexpected humor toward the beginning of the film, and at a time when few survivors are alive, it is a blessing to see a film in which some appear and are completely cogent. The film is also based on the writings of Alfons, one of the seven siblings who survived. Was that result due to luck, kindness of farmers, or the work of God? The film is not overly preachy and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions.
Lane’s film is an exquisite look at how the morality of two people can impact more than 70 lives, as the siblings have children and grandchildren. At one point, Lane asks if young people today would risk their lives to hide her. We can never really know what one would really do, but I suspect that few would risk their lives to save strangers.
Both The World Will Tremble and UnBroken would be excellent choices to show high school or college classes.
And if you want to learn about something you most certainly haven’t heard of, none other than the iconic Martin Scorsese has done an episode of his series The Saints that involves an unexpected hero of the Holocaust. Available on Fox Nation, the episode tells of Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest who started the first Christian radio station in Poland. Interestingly, Kolbe at one time preached antisemitism, believing that the sick conspiracy book The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was actually true.
But that did not stop him from doing something unthinkable when the Gestapo sent him to Auschwitz. When one Jew escaped, a Nazi decided 10 would have to die. When Kolbe heard that one Jewish man cried that he had a wife and child, Kolbe asked the Nazi if he could be killed instead. He agreed. And a Jewish man named Franciszek Gajowniczek was saved, and lived until 1995 and attended the canonization of Kolbe.
There is not much dialogue, but the acting of Milivoje Obradovic is strong as Kolbe, who isn’t dramatic, doesn’t yell and chooses his fate to die for a Jew as if it is a totally normal request, even though the Nazi seems dumbfounded.
It is unclear whether or not he realized The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was a lie, or he simply realized that the barbarity of the Holocaust was an affront to God. Earlier in the episode, as a child, he says he wants to be pure and a martyr and may have been affected by his father’s death.
At a time when some people think they know all of the Holocaust stories already out there, here are three new ones — and all are worth telling.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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UK Lifts Sanctions Against Syria’s Defense Ministry, Intelligence Agencies
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria, March 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Britain on Thursday lifted assets freezes on Syria’s defense and interior ministries, and a range of intelligence agencies, reversing sanctions imposed during Bashar al-Assad’s presidency.
The West is rethinking its approach to Syria after insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted Assad as president in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
A notice posted online by the British finance ministry said the Syrian Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, and General Intelligence Directorate were among 12 entities no longer subject to an asset freeze.
The notice did not set out reasons for the de-listing.
In March, the government unfroze the assets of Syria’s central bank and 23 other entities including banks and oil companies.
The British government has previously stressed that sanctions on members of the Assad regime would remain in place.
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Finding Peace in the Middle East
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-US President Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, September 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner/
President Donald Trump is planning a trip to the Gulf States in May. According to the White House, he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In anticipation, others are shifting gears, raising the question. “Are we getting closer to, or farther from, a peaceful region?”
Jordan just banned the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The country’s Interior Minister said all MB activities would be banned in the country, and anyone promoting the group’s ideology will be held accountable by law. He added that the ban includes publishing, and requires “closure and confiscation” of all MB offices and property.
This, along with the Kingdom’s ban on Al Jazeera, puts Jordan in line with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Israel and Bahrain also ban Al Jazeera, as does the Palestinian Authority (see below). All these entities understand that the Qatari government-owned media outlet magnifies and encourages radical MB ideology, promotes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and attacks conservative Arab governments.
Jordan’s actions garnered praise from a prominent UAE entrepreneur posting on X: “The UAE was among the first to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and warn the world about its ideology … This is not Islamophobia! This is about national security, public safety, and peace.”
This is a step forward.
Lebanon
While Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun agrees that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) should be the only armed force in the country, he is hedging over what happens to the remaining Iran-supported Hezbollah forces and weapons. “Any divisive issue should not be approached through the media or social platforms, but rather through quiet and responsible communication with the concerned parties.”
Hezbollah wouldn’t agree “to give up its arms de facto out of principle,” Karim Safieddine, a Lebanese political writer and doctoral student in sociology at Pittsburgh University, told Al Jazeera. Instead, they could disarm “in exchange for big benefits.”
Now, that is a bit of bravado, as Saudi reports indicate that more than 200 of the remaining Hezbollah commanders have left Lebanon for South America, where the organization has a well-entrenched drug and arms smuggling network.
Apparently, the commanders fear they could be targeted if more of its infrastructure is dismantled — though whether it would be targeted by the IDF or by unhappy Lebanese citizens is unclear. In any case, there are still tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters in the country, and Lebanon still permits the airing of Al Jazeera.
But, an Israeli military source told Ynet, “In large areas, the Lebanese army is taking action against Hezbollah to a much greater extent than we expected.” Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah offers Lebanon its best chance for stability and prosperity in decades. If they can take it. It is a maybe.
The Palestinian Authority
It almost sounded as if Mahmoud Abbas, the corrupt dictator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in the 20 year of his single, elected 4-year term, had come to grips with the monstrosity of Hamas behavior. Abbas called on Hamas to “release the hostages.” And, indeed, he did call Hamas “sons of b****es,” a huge insult.
But this is not about peace. Abbas opposes the continued holding of hostages by Hamas because he, Abbas, is paying a price. And Israel is winning. He told an audience:
They don’t want to hand over the American hostage. You sons of b****es — hand over what you have and get us out of this. Don’t give Israel an excuse. Don’t give them an excuse. Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages. Why have they taken them hostage? I am the one paying the price. Our people are paying the price, not Israel … My brother, just hand them over. [emphasis added]
The banning of Al Jazeera by Abbas should be seen in this context. Al Jazeera, and the Government of Qatar, support Hamas over the PA and incite violence against both the PA and Israel. While the latter is acceptable to him, the former is not.
And Abbas isn’t too keen on Americans, either. He told his audience: “They [the Americans] said: Normalize, or something like that. You know the Americans; the Americans are like this. May their father be cursed [Laughter and applause]. I am not a great Arab leader. I am a dwarf, this small. Thirty-three times I told them, ‘No!’”
This is not a man seeking a resolution of the conflict either with Israel or the United States. This one is a no.
Finding Peace
The Abraham Accords of 2020 split the region. There remain those like Lebanese Sunni Islamic scholar Aboubaker Zahabi, who, during a protest in Beirut, declared: “To the sons of Zion, our religion is the religion of jihad. We will come to you and slaughter you.”
But there is also Khalifa, who marked Holocaust Memorial Day: “Standing here today as an Emirati and a believer in tolerance, coexistence and peace, I honor the memory of Holocaust victims and pay tribute to their memory by working to create a world where dignity is upheld and diversity is cherished.”
And Mohamed Albahraini of Bahrain, who wrote: “#Holocaust Remembrance Day. Asking God for the victims of our #JEWISH brothers and sisters mercy and forgiveness. May their souls rest in peace forever.”
As the President prepares for his trip, more Khalifas and Mohameds — and fewer Aboubakers — means more possibility that the region’s upheaval will ultimately result in peace. Good luck, President Trump.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
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