I fought for Gay Pride - today we need to fight for Jewish Pride

As a child I was almost unbearably excited by Christmas stockings, games, chocolates and presents. To this day the aroma of mince pies triggers me into gulping fits of sentimental ecstasy. But as I grew out of childhood, realising I was gay, I saw a long, lonely line of Christmases ahead of me. Exclusion, exile, and disgrace had been and surely always would be the fate of the homosexual. But look! In my short lifetime (well I think of it as short) Britain has moved towards an understanding and acceptance of gay love.

Alright, it’s not perfect of course, but what an improvement over the grim culture in which I grew up.

One truth about myself, however, that I never thought for one single second would ever be an issue about which I had any cause to worry in this country, was that I’m a Jew. Yes, I am a Jew. That may surprise some people. It surprises me really. I don’t think of myself as especially Jewish. Indeed sometimes people rather embarrassingly refer to me as “quintessentially English” whatever that means. I suppose it’s because I love cricket and Shakespeare and The Archers on Radio 4 and my vocal chords appear to be made of tweed. But if you take a swab of my spittle — as I did with one of those genetic services - up comes 52% Ashkenazy Jew. More than half, which was a bit of a surprise. My mother’s Jewish family came over from Central Europe in the 1930s, but my father died without knowing that he was a fraction Jewish.

Does it matter? I mean, I don’t really “identify as Jewish” any more than I “identify as English” or British. Then again, I know, because I’ve been warned, that I’ve been on lists of British Jews that some ultra-right wing newspapers and sites have published over the years. And I’m frankly damned if I’ll let antisemites be the ones who define me, and take ownership of the word Jew, injecting it with their own spiteful venom.

So I accept and claim the identity with pride, I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew. The great Irish thinker and writer Conor Cruise O’Brien once said that “antisemitism is a light sleeper”. Well, it seems to have woken up of late. The horrendous events of October 7 and the Israeli response seem to have stirred up this ancient hatred. It’s agonising to see all the violence and destruction that’s unfolding, and the terrible loss of life on both sides brings me an overwhelming sadness and heartache. But whatever our opinions on what is happening, there can be no excuse for the behaviour of some of our citizens.

Since October 7 there have been 50 separate reported incidents of antisemitism every single day in London alone, an increase of 1350% according to the Metropolitan Police. Shop windows smashed, Stars of David and swastikas daubed on walls of Jewish properties, synagogues, and cemeteries. Jewish schools have been forced to close. There is real fear stalking the Jewish neighbourhoods of Britain. Jewish people here are becoming fearful of showing themselves. In Britain, in 2023.

My Jewish grandparents loved Britain, believing that Jews were more welcome here than in most countries. I am glad they aren’t alive now to read newspaper stories that would have reminded them of the 1930s Europe that they left. They believed Britishness meant being fair and decent, but what can be more unfair or indecent than race hatred, whether antisemitism, Islamophobia or any kind?

So what is my message this Christmas? The simple truth that we are all brothers and sisters. It’s naive, but it’s as good a message as any other. At this time in the face of the greatest rise in anti-Jewish racism since records began, Jews should stand upright and proud in who they are. Standing upright means speaking up and calling out venomous slurs and hateful abuse wherever you encounter them.

Knowing and loving this country as I do, I don’t believe that most Britons are ok living in a society that judges hatreds of Jews to be the one acceptable form of racism. So speak up, stand with us, be proud to be Jewish or Jew-ish - or, if not Jewish at all, proud to have us as much a part of this great nation as any other minority.

And so this mad quintessential queer English Jew wishes you all peace, joy, and a very merry Xmas, formerly known as Twittermas. And now let’s all exhale that great sigh that Jews have sighed for thousands of years. Oy.

(This is an edited version of Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message, broadcast on Christmas Day)