The war in Gaza is dividing opinion within London's Jewish community, where personal histories of the Holocaust shape sharply different responses. Around 300,000 Jews now live in the United Kingdom, less than one percent of the population, and the debate is unfolding everywhere from family kitchens to large synagogues. For some, solidarity with Israel comes first; for others, the same history demands that they speak out. The result is a community holding deeply held and competing convictions at the same time.
Among those who join pro-Palestinian demonstrations is the writer Natasha Walter, whose family fled Hamburg to Britain to escape Nazi persecution. She recalls that her grandmother reached Britain in 1939, while relatives went to Palestine in order to survive, and that had they not, they too could have been sent on the trains to Treblinka and killed. Walter says she fully understands the strong attachment that Jewish people in Britain and around the world feel towards Israel. But she argues that this attachment should not absolve anyone from understanding and calling out what she describes as Israeli crimes.
Walter marches alongside Holocaust survivors and their families from the progressive wing of London's Jewish community. One of them, Stephen Capers, a Hungarian Jew who lost most of his family in the Holocaust, says he is acutely aware of what he sees as the Israeli government misusing the memory of the genocide to justify a kind of impunity. The true meaning of the Holocaust, he insists, should be never again to any people anywhere. Several thousand people regularly take part in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and within those crowds the Jewish contingent remains a small minority.
Others in the community see the protests in a very different light. At one of Britain's largest synagogues, Rabbi Mendel Cohen says he cannot understand why Holocaust survivors or their families would march side by side with pro-Palestinian groups, and he regards the demonstrations as a threat. He points to chants such as from the river to the sea and to claims that Zionists are genocidal, which he rejects as complete fabrications and as dangerous. The rabbi says he is almost certain that nobody from his own congregation would attend such a protest.
The debate is playing out against a backdrop of rising anxiety. Golders Green, a district in north London with a strong Jewish presence, has seen several attacks in recent weeks, and two men were stabbed. In response, the British government has pledged millions of pounds in additional funding to safeguard schools and synagogues. For many residents, the security measures are a reminder of how exposed they feel rather than a reassurance.
That fear runs deep among those who spoke about the climate around them. Some compared the atmosphere to what their grandparents had described in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, saying it is frightening to feel targeted simply because of their beliefs and identity. They described the situation as unfair and hateful, and said the recent violence could have happened to anyone. More protection, several argued, is needed for everyone, not only for one community.
On the main street of Golders Green, at a local cafe, many residents view the pro-Palestinian demonstrations with scepticism, saying their solidarity with Israel comes first. Russell Calla, one of the few willing to speak on camera, said that when people see an attack on Israel, they see it as an attack on Jewish people. Between his view and that of demonstrators like Natasha Walter lies a community trying to reconcile a shared history with profoundly different conclusions about the war and its meaning.