Jake Wallis Simons

Is the Metropolitan Police fit for purpose? The question haunts the minds of many Londoners, particularly women, despite the resignation of Cressida Dick. But it haunts one community in particular: ultra-orthodox Jews. The Met’s list of recent failures is almost as long as it is shameful. Sarah Everard, killed by an officer who kidnapped her in a mock arrest. Serving policemen jailed for sharing ghoulish pictures of two murdered sisters. The bungled VIP paedophile ring inquiry. The list of incompetence, corruption, moral degeneration and cover-ups goes on. But the plight of ultra-orthodox Jews in north London continues to pass unnoticed. Theirs is an archaic way of life, insulated from the modern world, which values religion and tradition above everything else.

About three minutes’ walk from my house in Winchester is Jewry Street. It runs from the Theatre Royal at one end towards the 13th Century Great Hall at the other. It’s a picturesque throughfare, dotted with cafés, restaurants, churches and a library. But despite its name, it is all but Judenrein. I’ve lived in Winchester for almost 15 years. My grandparents brought their children up here. The air is clean, crime levels are low and there are many green spaces. It is often listed as the best place to live in Britain, especially for families. But the walk along Jewry Street has always given me a sense of eeriness. Along the street lie unmarked locations of Jewish significance.

Is J.K. Rowling anti-Semitic? Yes, I know. It’s the first week of 2022 and this question is being asked, after it was reported that the American comedian Jon Stewart had complained about the portrayal of goblins in the Harry Potter franchise. In a video released online yesterday, Stewart attempted to put the record straight. ‘Let me say this super clearly, as clearly as I can,’ he said. ‘I do not think J.K. Rowing is anti-Semitic. I did not accuse her of being anti-Semitic. I do not think that the Harry Potter movies are anti-Semitic… None of that is true, and a reasonable person could not have looked at that conversation and not found it light-hearted.

Azeem Rafiq is not having a good week. In addition to having to issue a grovelling apology for antisemitic messages, this morning it was reported in the Yorkshire Post that a mobile number belonging to him allegedly sent creepy sexual messages to a teenage girl, declaring a desire to ‘grab you push u up against wall and kiss you.’ In short, the former Yorkshire and England star has bizarrely managed to find himself at the centre a racism storm, an antisemitism storm and a sex storm all at once – as a victim in the first case and a perpetrator in the second. So far, Mr Rafiq hasn’t commented on the young woman’s allegations and his spokesman told the paper it was being investigated.

On the face of it, it seemed the most startling irony. Azeem Rafiq, the former Yorkshire spin bowler who has been giving tearful evidence to a select committee about racism at the club, was found to have made racist remarks himself. Well, anti-Semitic remarks. Which is just as serious, right? In the eyes of many, it was a case of pot and kettle. Here was a man making a very public display of his victimhood, who seemingly felt it was OK to mete out the same treatment to others. #Hypocrite, they cried. #Humbug. With almost no exceptions, reports focussed on the apology that Mr Rafiq gave and the fact that his anti-Semitism was only 'historic'. But not in the eyes of the media and liberal commentariat.

After the House of Representatives decided yesterday that it would be, well, a bit much to leave millions of Israeli civilians at risk of being blown up in their own beds, the 'progressive' wing of the Democrat party was devastated. 'Minutes before the vote closed, Ms Ocasio-Cortez tearfully huddled with her allies,' ran a heartrending report in this morning's New York Times, describing the House’s 420-to-9 decision to approve funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. 'The tableau underscored how wrenching the vote was for even outspoken progressives, who have been caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis.