Opinion
This year’s rise in antisemitism has been awful, but we will continue to face the challenges with courage
There has been record antisemitism record by CST in the last six months
August 8, 2024 08:54
3 min read
There has been record antisemitism record by CST in the last six months
August 8, 2024 08:54Today CST report’s a record number of antisemitic incidents in the first half of this year. I doubt you will be surprised by that. Shocked maybe, but surely nor surprised, unless you’ve been living in isolation (without a mobile phone) since 7 October 2023.
The incidents are reported by the general Jewish public, by communal organisations and by police across the country. We have been doing this since 1984 and the process has been highly professional for at least 20 years now.
That is why CST’s reports are widely recognised by other Jewish communities, governments, police and international bodies as being the most reliable of their type anywhere in the world. Here in Britain, they are the fundamental evidence base for communal, policing and government actions against antisemitism, including our own social welfare, intelligence and legal follow ups. That is why we need our community to report incidents to CST.
Our sole mission is to enable a proud, confident and safe Jewish life. We know that war is always around the corner in the Middle East; and, perhaps unlike some British Jews, we have never allowed our relative comfort to blind us to the long-term reality that antisemitism did not magically end in our lifetimes, nor in that of our grandchildren.
For those harsh reasons, CST and our communal partners have invested millions of pounds in the physical security measures that you experience at synagogues, Jewish schools and other buildings.
Above all else, our 2,000 remarkable CST volunteers are the proof of how we empower our community to play an active, responsible role in its own protection. All of this is to enable British Jews to lead the lives of their choice.
At CST we will always be honest with you. We are not interested in self-publicity or spreading excessive alarms about the condition of our UK Jewish community.
Our message about antisemitism is based on hard evidence and objective analysis. None of us should tolerate or somehow excuse the hatred, bias and double standards that we face from so many sectors of society. It is an affront to us, our people and our country.
We must avoid misleading narratives. For example, accusations that the police have abandoned us or surrendered our streets to an antisemitic mob are unfair and do us no good. There have been hundreds of arrests for antisemitism and for supporting Hamas since October 7, many reported to police by CST’s researchers. Yes, the police make mistakes, and we will always urge them to do better; but they have worked tremendously hard and have overwhelmingly maintained public order in very complex situations.
Government is also very supportive of our efforts against antisemitism and CST will keep working with partners across politics to keep it that way. This is why both main parties went into the General Election pledging to maintain the Protective Security Grant for the Jewish community at £18m for the next four years. (The money is managed by CST but pays for commercial guards at schools etc. It doesn’t pay for CST.)
Ultimately, CST’s ethos is that our community must always stand up for itself. The last nine months have felt relentless and we are all rightly anxious about how much worse it could yet get: but it has bred a resilience and a determination that we should all be proud of.
We’ve seen this at CST with the huge number of people who have stepped forward to become CST volunteer security officers, many hundreds of whom are now trained and deployed. It is also evidenced by the many more community events that those CST volunteers are securing.
As I write this, CST is running our largest-ever security operation at the European Maccabi Youth Games, securing youngsters from 24 different countries. Seeing the way our volunteers give up their time to protect such a fantastic event makes me proud of CST, but also of our community: because that is where every CST member comes from.
We cannot predict the future. The awful war in Israel and Gaza continues, nobody knows how many hostages are still alive and there could be a full-blown regional war before I have even emailed this column to the JC editors.
Experience shows that more wars mean more protests, more hate and yet another surge of antisemitism. CST will do its utmost whatever the challenge, but our strength depends on the support of our community. This is why I always stress the words in our name, Community, Security, and Trust, because those three values are what we are all about.
