While celebrating Wednesday’s turnout of anti-fascists on our streets in support of communities and asylum seekers who have been under threat since the dreadful Southport murders, there are many Jews like me who are full of despair over the “call to the streets” by Finchley Against Fascism (“UK anti-racist rallies held as extremist protests fail to materialise”, Report, August 9). This group chose to include Zionists in their list of fascists, racists, Nazis and Islamophobes who need to be kicked out of Finchley.
For too long, Jews of my generation (I am 76) have believed that the best safeguard against Jew hatred was for us to explain ourselves and to educate non-Jews in the true meaning of Zionism, which holds that the only way for Jews to survive in this world was for us to have our own state where we could escape at times of persecution.
Holocaust survivors spent decades educating people around the world about the evils of racism and “othering”. All to no avail, as I find that once again I feel unsafe on the streets of the city where I live.
On Wednesday, I felt some hope that the British people had found their voice and were again asserting their inbuilt fairness and generosity to all communities.
Today I am in despair and fearful for my fellow Jews.
Ruth Rosenthal
London N5, UK
