Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber
Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue
Saturday 25 April 2026¹

• OK, so who watched Panorama: Why British Jews Are Afraid² on Monday evening?
• I watched it too. And it reminded me of a paragraph in Steve Lipman’s fascinating book Laughter in Hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust. It seems that the Jews of 1930s Germany had a joke.³ A rabbi was caught reading the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer. His congregants were shocked: “Why are you touching that filthy rag?!” they demanded. The rabbi replied that he found it uplifting. “When I read the Jewish papers, I hear about attacks, and smashed windows, and killings. But when I read Der Stürmer, it turns out that we own all the banks, own all the big companies, and control the government! It’s inspiring!”
• There has always been something of Private Frazer in the Jewish establishment’s approach to antisemitism. Almost every headline could be written in his dour highland voice, glumly intoning: “We’re doomed!”
• And it’s easy to understand why. I will never forget that moment on 2 October when, mid-prayer, someone slipped me a note letting me know about the murderous terrorist attack on the Heaton Park synagogue. Then there was the destruction of Hatzolah’s ambulances. And now, in the last ten days or so, we’ve seen multiple attempted arson attacks on Jewish targets, including our sister synagogue, Finchley Reform. There are some seriously frightening things happening.
• That’s why BHPS has been investing a lot in upgrading our security. Our paid guards – funded by the Home Office – are working longer hours. We’ve had an engineer in to overhaul our CCTV and a locksmith in to upgrade our locks, inside and out. It’s sad that it’s necessary; but necessary it is.
• In light of all this, perhaps it’s no wonder that, as Richard Verber, communications director of the United Synagogue, told journalists on Sunday, some British Jews are beginning to ask: “[W]here else am I going to live if Britain is not safe?”⁴
• But if you’ll indulge me, I’m going to spend a little time trying to persuade you that that is the wrong question, that we’re not doomed. Frightening things are happening, but ‘frightening’ is a spectrum. Responsible Jewish leaders ought to be doing everything they can to help members of the community calibrate their fears, and discouraging the narrative that we should all be making plans to flee.
• In our haftarah this morning,⁵ Jeremiah warned⁶ of false prophets who proclaimed שָׁלוֹם  שָׁלוֹם וְאֵין שָׁלוֹם – who said: “All is well, all is well!” when all was not well. That was par for the course for Jeremiah, a famously gloomy character: the word ‘jeremiad’, meaning a long litany of woes, comes from him.
• In fact, though, today’s Jewish community is in danger from false prophets who say חֶרֶב חֶרֶב וְאֵין חֶרֶב – “Death, destruction!” when there is no substantial risk of overwhelming death and destruction. My worry is that widespread fear-mongering, the claim that all British Jews exist in a state of constant peril, poses a far greater danger to our community even than the last week’s spree of attempted arson.
• If our Judaism degenerates into sheer panic, all is lost. Our continued existence (not to mention my job) depends on Jews continuing to identify strongly, continuing to flock to synagogues, continuing to fund communal institutions, and, vitally, continuing to produce children who will grow up to do the same. And frankly, why would any child be keen to take part in synagogue life, to go on camp with Jewish youth movements, to join university Jewish Societies, if they’re taught – or absorb the idea – that being actively Jewish places them in mortal danger?
• Fortress communities, or, worse, communities empty of members because everyone has been scared into staying at home and unscrewing the mezuzot from their front doors, will be the end of us. Jeremiah mocked the people for retreating from their religion: “Let us gather into the fortified cities,” they said, and he retorted: “Yes, and become silent and useless!”⁷
• Yet I suspect Jeremiah’s people weren’t really to blame for their nervousness. Today’s Anglo-Jewry certainly isn’t to blame; we’ve been seduced into anxiety by the relentless Private Frazers who tell us – through the press, through social media, through the rumour mill, through echo chambers – that: “We’re doomed!”
• Our Torah portion this morning included the line דַּם כׇּל־בָּשָׂר לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ, which the chumash translates as: “The blood of all flesh you are not to eat.”⁸ But some of those words have double meanings. דַּם can mean literal, liquid blood; but it can also refer, metaphorically, to vistas of bloodshed, as in portents of death and destruction.⁹ The root בשׂר means ‘flesh’ or ‘meat’, but, interestingly, it can also refer to ‘tidings’ or ‘news’.¹⁰ And אוֹכֵל, eat, can also be used in the figurative sense of accepting or absorbing, like in the English phrase ‘swallowing a lie’.¹¹
• That means that our verse, דַּם כׇּל־בָּשָׂר לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ, could legitimately be translated not as: “The blood of all flesh you are not to eat,” but instead: “The doom-laden narratives in the news, you should not believe.”
• Now, I say ‘legitimately’. That obviously isn’t what the verse means. But rabbinic interpretation has always been exceptionally free. Rejigging words, even changing vowels and the odd letter, is a very common technique deployed in classical rabbinic literature in order to extract every last ounce of meaning from our holy book.
• And it’s necessary for me to do it here, to give the Torah’s text a gentle twist, to remind us all to refuse to accept, unthinkingly, those who are trying to induce us into a state of needless fear.
• The Hatzolah story could have been reported as: four Jewish-owned ambulances destroyed by Iranian-funded terrorists; perpetrators immediately arrested and charged; government immediately paid to replace the ambulances. But, no, instead, The Jewish News covered Kemi Badenoch declaring it “a national emergency”.¹²
• The attack on Finchley Reform Synagogue could have been reported as: a pair of racist thugs, too stupid even to light a Molotov cocktail, were caught almost immediately when vast numbers of Metropolitan Police officers descended to protect the Jewish community from harm. That’s entirely accurate and, actually, quite reassuring. But, no, instead, The Jewish Chronicle decided to publish an op-ed by Nigel Farage ימח שמו, who told us that we Jews are living “in real, physical danger” – and invited us to join his crusade against “mosques” which, he says, are “the root cause” of it all.¹³ (As if we should take lessons in antisemitism from someone who spent his schooldays hissing “Hitler was right!” at Jewish classmates.)¹⁴
• The “We’re doomed!” narrative does us no favours, but it also just isn’t correct. Being a diaspora Jew in the 21st century has its challenges. It is also a tremendous privilege. Returning to Richard Verber’s question: “[W]here else am I going to live?” – well, where else are you going to live? There’s always America… oh, but what about armed attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh, Poway and Colleyville? Scandinavia’s nice, how about Denmark? Ah… an armed attack there too. France is nearby. But, no, more armed attacks. I suppose Israel is the obvious option. But then again, would we want to hold our gatherings in bomb shelters, with rockets coming from one side and Hamas hostage-takers paragliding in from the other? If anything, Israel is one of the world’s least safe places to be Jewish.
• The fact is, as Anglo-Jewry here and now, we’ve lucked out. We’ve won the jackpot. Of all the times and places throughout history where Jews have lived, Britain in the 21st century is just about the safest. For all we hear it claimed that contemporary British university campuses are like 1930s Germany,¹⁵ I’m almost certain that if we actually asked a Jew from 1930s Germany – if we offered them the chance to transplant themselves to modern-day Exeter or Durham or King’s College London – they’d leap at the opportunity.
• The messaging we receive doesn’t help us calibrate our fears; it treats every piece of antisemitism, whether a single Holocaust-denying tweet or a series of firebombs directed at Jewish targets, as equally indicative of a society that is no longer safe for people like us. There’s all the difference in the world between seeing pro-Hamas slogans at a demonstration, and life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Neither is acceptable. Both are scary. Our reaction to each, though, needs nuance.
• Make no mistake, I’m not saying that being a British Jew today is easy. It isn’t. The attempted shul-burning in Kenton could just as easily have been an attempted shul-burning in Brighton. There but for the grace of God, etc.
• Yet in spite of these risks, Anglo-Jewry is a paradise. And Jewish leadership means, or should mean, rejoicing in that fact: shouting from the rooftops about how fortunate we are. I’m not going to join in the chorus of spokespeople implicitly encouraging you to start packing your suitcases, because it’s not necessary, it damages our community, and it spooks our children.
• I’ve been very forthright in telling you who we shouldn’t listen to. But who should we listen to? Who are the voices of hope and reason?
• One contributor to Panorama was Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s adviser on anti-terrorist legislation, and he was extremely sensible. “[T]here has been undue caution in using the law as it currently is,” he said. Almost every form of antisemitic hate is a crime, and those engaging in it – whether through murder, arson or hostile Facebook comments – should be prosecuted. And, crucially, they can be prosecuted. Moreover, as the spate of arrests over the last week has shown us, they are being prosecuted. We live in a society which has elected a Parliament that passed laws specially to protect us; which pays almost £20 million a year for our security guards; and which mobilises its police force to arrest those who threaten us! How many Jewish communities throughout history can boast that?
• My colleague Rabbi Julia Neuberger also spoke sense on Panorama. She pointed out that just because “people are feeling threatened doesn’t necessarily mean you should inhibit freedom of speech”. Living in a free and multiracial society means that we need to be robust about hearing people express ideas that are bothersome or uncomfortable. Whatever one’s views on the Middle East, the fact is that Palestinian flag is not a risk to our wellbeing. We demean the fight against real antisemitism by panicking, or affecting panic, at the sight of a watermelon.¹⁶ We’re Jews. We can handle a bit of disagreement!
• But the last word on this topic has to go to Rabbi Daniel Walker. Despite the murderous Islamist terrorist attack on his Heaton Park congregation on the holiest day of the year, he is a true inspiration and a firm believer in a rosy future for British Jewry. “Whilst recognising that things are not OK,” he told Panorama, “I am relentlessly positive. I choose to believe that the good will do what needs doing and that society will become a better place.” כן יהי רצון, may this be God’s will.

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Shavua tov!

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Notes

1. Leviticus 17:10-16 ↩︎
2. Panorama, “Antisemitism: why British Jews are afraid”, BBC One (20 April 2026). ↩︎
3. Steve Lipman, Laughter in Hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1993), 197; Christopher Hitchens, “The 2,000-year-old panic“, The Atlantic (March 2008). ↩︎
4. “Prime Minister should call this ‘an epidemic of anti-Jewish hate’“, The Jewish News (19 April 2026). ↩︎
5. BHPS often uses non-traditional haftarot, and this Shabbat we read Jeremiah 8. ↩︎
6. Jeremiah 8:11 ↩︎
7. A paraphrase of Jeremiah 8:14 based loosely on Malbim ad loc ↩︎
8. NJPS translation of Leviticus 17:14 ↩︎
9. Cf Joel 3:3 ↩︎
10. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament vol 2 pp 313-331 ↩︎
11. Cf Jeremiah 15:16 ↩︎
12. Lee Harpin, “‘We’re reaching a national emergency’ – Badenoch sounds alarm over synagogue arson attacks“, The Jewish News (20 April 2026). ↩︎
13. Nigel Farage, “Jews are now living in danger – and the Government’s failure to confront the root causes is a national disgrace“, The Jewish Chronicle (20 April 2026). ↩︎
14. Daniel Boffey et al, “‘He used to say things like “Hitler was right”’: Farage faces more allegations of racist behaviour at school“, The Guardian (19 November 2025); Tom Witherow and Fiona Hamilton, “Nigel Farage ‘was my vicious, persistent tormentor’ at school“, The Times (28 November 2025). ↩︎
15. Camilla Turner, “British university campuses feel like ‘1930s Germany’ for Jewish students, minister warned“, The Telegraph (27 April 2021). ↩︎
16. “Customer hounded out of Apple store after criticising staff wearing watermelon jewellery“, UK Lawyers for Israel (9 October 2024); Haroon Siddique, “NHS nurse ordered to remove ‘antisemitic’ watermelon video call background launches legal action“, The Guardian (18 June 2025); Gordon Rayner, “The secret pro-Palestine message in Disney’s Christmas advert“, The Telegraph (12 December 2025). ↩︎