The attack in Golders Green, in which two Jews were stabbed, took place two minutes from our charity’s centre, where many hundreds of young people come each week to learn and to socialise.
It is tempting to describe such moments as shocking. But shock implies surprise. There is something sobering, even troubling, in admitting that we are no longer surprised by this attack. The atmosphere has been changing for some time. Not overnight, not dramatically, but gradually, almost imperceptibly, until what once felt unthinkable has begun to feel, if not normal, then at least predictable.
For months now, there has been a quiet, unspoken understanding among many young Jews in London that certain areas are best avoided if you are visibly Jewish
In the past 24 hours, I have received an unprecedented number of messages and calls from young Jews asking a question I never thought I would hear in modern Britain: do we still have a future here? These are thoughtful, engaged young people who feel deeply part of this country. The fact that they are even asking the question tells us something has shifted at a far deeper level than we may wish to admit. This is not only a Jewish concern. It is a British one.
For months now, there has been a quiet, unspoken understanding among many young Jews in London that certain areas are best avoided if you are visibly Jewish. That is how societies change. Not first in law, but in atmosphere. As George Orwell observed, liberty begins to erode not only when it is taken away, but when people begin to censor themselves out of fear.
In the aftermath of attacks like this, we often hear politicians reach for the language of ‘senseless violence.’ It sounds measured, even reassuring. But there is a certain cowardice in it. This was not senseless.Jews now think twice before walking down the street, every parent quietly reassesses the safety of their children, every member of a community is essentially told, without words, to make themselves smaller.
The victims of this attack were Jews. That is the simplicity, and the horror, of it. And ironically, it is precisely this reality that reminds us, however uncomfortably, why the existence of a Jewish state is not a political luxury but, in an age like ours, an existential necessity.
We should also be honest about the climate in which this is taking place. Chants of ‘globalise the intifada’ are too often dismissed as slogans, as though words exist in a vacuum. But they do not. Language shapes moral reality. It sets the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. And when the language of violence becomes normalised, it should not surprise us when violence itself follows.
There is an old and painful truth that history has taught us repeatedly: what begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews. They are often the first to sense a shift in the moral climate of a society, but never the last to suffer its consequences. When Jews no longer feel safe, it is not simply a Jewish problem. It is a warning sign that something more fundamental is going wrong.
Last night, my congregation gathered in numbers I have never seen before. They came not out of routine, but out of need. There was fear, certainly, but also something else, something deeper. A determination, a refusal to be defined by fear. I reminded them of a truth that has carried the Jewish people through far darker periods than this. We have never been defeated. Empires have risen and fallen. Nations have come and gone. The Jewish people remain.
But this is not only about Jewish resilience. It is about British responsibility. A country is not judged by the comfort of its majority, but by the safety of its minorities. If a young person in Britain today feels that they must hide who they are in order to be safe, then something essential has been lost. Recognising that is the first step towards restoring it. Failing to recognise it risks allowing the problem to deepen beyond repair
The Jewish people will endure. They always have. The question is whether Britain will recognise what is at stake, and act while there is still time.
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