EDL picks new Jewish Division leader

The English Defence League has selected a new leader to run its Jewish division.

James Cohen, a Canadian writer and activist, was installed in the role last weekend. He is expected to work to boost membership numbers and recruit supporters of Israel. Mr Cohen has worked with the International Free Press Society, which claims to promote free speech, and the Free Thinking Film Society. He will replace Roberta Moore, who stepped down from her position as division leader in July.

In June the JC revealed that the Jewish division had around a dozen members, only a few of whom are actually Jewish.

In a statement on its website, the EDL said: "Unfortunately, under the previous leadership, the Jewish division allied themselves with some of the extreme elements that exist within the larger body of individuals and organisations that campaign against sharia law and other forms of Islamic extremism. This was a move that we were unwilling to condone.

"However, there is certainly still a place for Jews in the EDL. We fully expect that James will able to help expand upon the great work that our Jewish division members have already done. The JD will continue in its unwavering support of the state of Israel and in its efforts to educate people as to why that support is so important in the larger struggle against radical Islam."

The statement said the Jewish community comprised "proud patriots" who would "fight to preserve our country's traditions of tolerance, justice and fair play".

The Board of Deputies, CST and other communal groups have repeatedly warned British Jews against supporting the EDL.

Jewish Chronicle

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

UK anti-semitism 'surge' since Gaza attack

Anti-Semitic attacks in Britain have risen since the upsurge of hostilities in Gaza, a group which protects Jewish people said today.

The Community Security Trust (CST) has noted 24 incidents since 29 December, of which 19 were in the capital. They included an arson attack on a synagogue in north west London on Sunday night.

CST spokesman Mark Gardner said: "There has been a significant rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents, especially when compared with what is usually a very quiet time of year for racist, anti-Jewish attacks. It is a pattern with which we and the police are now sadly familiar, whereby hysteria is whipped up against Israel, and British Jews then suffer a wave of anti-Semitism. This is how racist attacks work. You have a grinding level of however many you expect in a year, then these trigger events lead to a sudden surge."

In the attack on the synagogue, in Brondesbury, arsonists tried to smash a window, but failed because of the toughened protective glass.

Mr Gardner said: "Having been thwarted they then appear to have attempted to set the front door alight with petrol, causing some damage to the exterior of the premises. Police, CST and fire brigade attended the scene."

On New Year's Eve, a gang of youths alarmed people in Golders Green, north west London, by trying to enter Jewish shops while shouting "Jew" at individuals. Nearby, a Jewish man was pulled from his car and assaulted by three men, but not seriously hurt.

The CST has also noted anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish areas across London, with slogans sprayed on walls including "Kill Jews".

Most of the five incidents outside London were in north west England, including graffiti on one synagogue, anti-Semitic hate mail sent to another one, and "Hamas HQ" graffiti on a Jewish building in Manchester.

Independent

Anti-Semitic incidents 'rise 9%' in UK

Desecrated Jewish graves

There was a 9% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in the first half of 2008 compared with the same period last year, a charity has reported.

There were 266 incidents up to June, compared with 244 last year, according to the Community Security Trust (CST). Some 166 were incidents of abusive behaviour, including verbal abuse, hate mail and anti-Semitic graffiti.

CST admitted that improved contact with smaller Jewish communities "goes some way to explaining the overall rise".

Incidents involving Jewish students or academics and at colleges rose 88%, from 26 to 49. There were also 29 incidents involving Jewish schools and schoolchildren. Violent assaults were down, from 54 in the first six months of 2007, to 42.

Outside the biggest Jewish communities in London and Manchester, CST recorded 98 incidents in 38 different areas. This included 21 incidents in Leeds, up from 13 a year before, and a rise from six to 10 in Liverpool. In the first half of 2007, CST had recorded 70 incidents in 25 locations outside London and Manchester.

"This is partly explained by efforts made by CST to improve contact with smaller Jewish communities beyond the main urban centres, and goes some way to explaining the overall rise in incidents," the charity said.

John Mann MP, chair of the parliamentary group against anti-Semitism, said the report showed improved reporting of incidents involving students and smaller communities.

"By knowing the scale of the problem we can deploy strategies to combat anti-Semitism from our streets and our campuses," he said. "Every anti-Semitic attack is a blight on society."

BBC

Jewish life in Britain is thriving

As representatives from around the world converge on Jerusalem this week for the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism to assess the prevalence of what Robert Wistrich calls "the longest hatred," Britain, like every other country in the Diaspora, has its own account of how its Jewish community is faring.

The Global Forum comes less than a fortnight after the Community Security Trust (CST) issued its Report on Antisemitic Incidents for 2007, and its conclusions are disturbing. It shows the second highest number of incidents - 547, down 8 per cent from 2006 - since CST began keeping such records in 1984. Moreover, unlike previous years, where "trigger events" such as Israel's war against Hizbullah in 2006 have shown a spike in incident levels, analysts had expected that the absence of such events in 2007 would result in a far larger drop. Overall there has been a general increase in the base-line level of anti-Semitic incidents since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.

However, data such as these cry out for context. The figures also included many unacceptable, but nevertheless more minor, incidents and with a Jewish population in excess of 300,000, most are unaffected by such incidents. Jewish life in Britain is thriving. Communal leaders and activists agree that it would be self-defeating to allow such figures to define us existentially.

One erstwhile British-Jewish critical commentator, Rabbi Jeremy Rosen, to his own apparent surprise recently attested to the resurgence of the community. As any reader of the local Jewish media will attest, Jewish life in the UK is teeming with vibrant educational and cultural activity, robust political involvement and demonstrable pride in Jewish identity, with plans this summer for New York-style Salute to Israel Parades (replete with floats and marching bands) weaving their way through central London and Manchester, culminating in the Capital with a 60th birthday extravaganza in Trafalgar Square. This hardly sits with the "head below the parapet" stereotype of British Jews. Kippa wearers abound on the London Tube and elsewhere in the country, and all of England cheered Israel on in its battle with Russia on the football field.

Britain remains a good and comfortable place for Jews to live and British Jews have scored several major successes in mounting unified responses to challenges that affects us all as Jews and as citizens of democracies around the world.

While statistics don't lie, in any battle you need to know who your allies are. Part of the larger picture is the fact that the Jewish community in general and the CST in particular enjoy an unprecedented degree of cooperation and respect from law enforcement authorities up and down the country with whom they liaise and work collaboratively. The level to which we can securely go about our business as Jews in public and in Jewish public places is taken for granted.

Similarly, on the political front, it is important to underscore the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism and the formal government response. As a result, key Jewish communal representatives sit together with nine government departments and multiple other agencies on the government's cross-departmental task-force, set up to implement the report's key recommendations.

Of course we would rather that there was no need for an inquiry of this nature, but as we know, anti-Semitism exists and the dedication shown by so many parliamentarians and civil servants in addressing this issue is hugely encouraging. This marks something of a watershed on the political map and even among the Great British football watching public, a formidable force, which reacted with indignation to the anti-Semitic threats to Israeli Chelsea Football Club manager Avraham Grant.

Certainly, the UK is not immune to episodes that resonate around the world; such as the Oxford Union's circus style events when publicity-hungry undergraduates invited Holocaust-denier David Irving, the British National Party's Nick Griffin to discuss free speech, or a pantheon of anti-Zionists to debate Israel's right to exist. UK campuses, like their counterparts in other liberal democratic societies (Columbia University's recent decision to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to mind) can provide platforms in the name of free speech to those who would deny that right to others. Thankfully, we have a Union of Jewish Students adept at combating these and other instances of Israel and Jew-bashing, always allied with non-Jewish groups. Beyond campus firm alliances have been built and nurtured with Hindu, Sikh and Christian groups with whom we often lobby government on matters of joint concern.

Equally important was the outcome of the so-called much publicized University and College Union "boycott" (actually a motion to "consider" a boycott) that both the academic community (again, Jews and non-Jews alike) and the organized Jewish community (through the "Stop The Boycott" campaign) took on. Significantly it was the Union itself, and the British discrimination laws that brought about the demise of the boycott campaign.

There are more battles on the horizon. A cross-communal Durban Review task-force, Jewish Human Rights Coalition UK, spearheaded by the Board of Deputies and CST, will be meeting similar groups from around the world at the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday and heading to Geneva in April highlight the dangers of allowing the next UN Conference on Racism from devolving into an entropy of anti-Zionism and Jew hatred that characterized its predecessor in 2001.

Is UK Jewry facing problems and challenges? Without a doubt. But the community is now organized in such a way that we are better prepared to face and meet those challenges.

When I address the Global Forum on Monday I am proud to be in a position to offer models of best practice from the successful experiences of UK communal institutions for adoption elsewhere in the Jewish world. Like many of our British boxing heroes: we not only talk a good talk, but we also fight our corner.

Jerusalem Post