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Ben Freeman: Where is our pride?

His experience as a young gay man, led Ben Freeman to write his new book, urging Jews to take pride in their identity

February 15, 2021 10:18
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4 min read

Jewish pride isn’t something we hear about as often as we might like, especially from British Jews, but one man is on a mission to change all that. Inspired by his own experiences with LGBTQ+ issues, young gay writer Ben Freeman seeks to empower British Jews to celebrate who they are in a new book, Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People.

It is published by No Pasaran Media, a collective of leftwing activists who aim to give a publishing platform in the fight against Left antisemitism, racism and conspiracy theories. In the book, Freeman seeks to inspire, educate and empower the community to reject the shame of antisemitism imposed on Jews, as well as change perceptions of what it means to be a Jew in the 21st century.

I spoke to Ben from his home in Hong Kong where he lives and teaches history. Born in Glasgow, he grew upon in a small traditional community and went to the only Jewish school in the area. “I was raised in a very proudly Jewish home and it’s kind of funny that the question of Jewish pride never even entered my head, it was just always what it was,” he tells me. “It was always Jewish, we never celebrated Christmas or Easter, we kept a kosher home… so I loved it, it was great.”

Why this book and why now? “The reason I wrote the book is two-fold. The first is my own experience with LGBTQ+ pride. I have my own experiences with pride – I’ve been on that journey already. With regards to the Jewish community, when I joined Twitter in 2018 specifically to take part in the fight against Jeremy Corbyn and left-wing Labour antisemitism, I really saw that Jewish people wanted to speak out, wanted to be proud, but they were suffering the hangover of the ‘keep your head down’ policy.”