The British government has announced new security funding for Jewish communities across the UK in an effort to combat rising antisemitism and strengthen community resilience in areas facing the greatest risk. But many British Jews say they fear for the future and compare the current atmosphere to the years preceding the Holocaust.

Tony Gordon, the 80-year-old president of the Jewish community in Bristol, told the LBC British radio station that the local shul has been forced to keep its gates locked at all times because of threats to mispallelim.

“As a child, I grew up in Leeds, which was the third-largest Jewish community in the country,” Gordon said. “In my childhood and early teenage years, there were some antisemitic incidents. That was during the rise of the National Front. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“It is much, much worse than it has ever been,” Gordon added. “Well, I can only count the last 80 years, but certainly in the last 80 years.”

“There is absolutely no doubt that the situation now is comparable to what happened in Germany, for example, in the early 1930s. And we know where that led in the long term in Germany. The question I wake up with every day is: are we currently at the peak of this madness? And will it subside and return to something people can live with? Or is this a trend? And if it is, what is the end result?”

Gordon said that he has seen “members of the community considering moving abroad out of fear.”

He also described how the situation has affected his shul. “We have to make sure the synagogue gates are locked at all times. If someone comes to attend prayers, we see them on camera and open the door for them. Fortunately, we have good support from the local police, and there are now two police officers present whenever we have a ceremony or an educational visit at the synagogue.”

“But who wants to live like this? The fact that no one has actually confronted me in the street does not mean I am not living with a certain level of fear, which quite frankly, I’m entitled not to live with.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)