People don’t love dead jews…actually?

After another deadly attack on British Jews, the silence speaks volumes. Charlie Burton contemplates the recent Manchester attack on a Synagogue during the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Like many, both inside and out of our community, I have read Dara Horn’s fascinating book ‘People Love Dead Jews’. Horn argues that societies often prefer to respect and preserve the memory of Jewish suffering, rather than acknowledge the complex realities of living Jews. Jews, she argues, are ‘easy victims’ to remember and commemorate, but are not as easy for many to respect while still alive. Today’s events have shown Horn’s already-bleak thesis to be untrue.

Britain’s Jewish community was rocked last month, not for the first time, by a violent attack at a synagogue in Manchester, leaving two Jews dead and a further three seriously injured in hospital. And people simply don’t care.  Many people refuse to condemn this attack; even worse, they’re celebrating it.

Manchester’s Crumpsall is an area that many of us, in this community, are intimately acquainted with—home to a large Jewish community as well as the King David High School (KD). Many of my friends from North Manchester live in this area or have attended KD. This attack is a Mancunian tragedy, don’t get me wrong, but in truth, it is a Jewish one. I believe that it is not the physical proximity of our friends and family to this attack that makes it hit so close to home, but rather it is because of that lingering understanding that this could have happened to us—in our communities, in our synagogues, in our homes.

Maybe even scarier than the physical threat to Jews, as shown by the recent attack, is the widespread passivity and even victim-blaming that have become prevalent in our society when violence is perpetrated against Jews.

Bushra Shaikh, a former contestant on The Apprentice, and self-described ‘Social/Political Commentator’, has led the charge, saying that she was ‘Horrified to learn of the attack outside a Synagogue in Manchester […] My thoughts are with those affected by this criminal act. We are yet to learn of the motivations behind the crime. But I blame Netanyahu and his live-streamed genocide.’

In response, one must beg the question—would any other minority group be blamed so ruthlessly for their own oppression?

Less than three hours after Jihad al-Shamie’s killing spree was ended by Manchester Police, Ms Shaikh had already begun lambasting Jews for the ‘crime’ of dying at the hands of a terrorist bent on the destruction of Jews.  

Shaikh continued, mere hours later, as victims lay in hospital beds, positing that this must be a ‘false flag’ attack by Israel, designed to distract from the interception of the Sumud flotilla, heading to deliver aid to Gaza. Unfortunately, Shaikh is not alone in these vile beliefs. Many figures on both the political left and right have shared similar views.

The Telegraph went further, interviewing pro-Palestinian protestors in Manchester on the same day of the attack, reporting that a protestor had said that they, ‘[didn’t] give a f*** about the Jewish community right now’. One might wonder, had it been a different community, would that elicit the same response?

A little about me before I continue. I am a proud liberal Zionist who believes in an eventual two-state solution, with a positive future for those on both sides of the conflict. Neither Palestinian nor Israeli children should have to sacrifice themselves at the altar of toxic nationalism. I am a fierce critic of Netanyahu and his corrupt government, and was proud to play a small part in the Israeli protest movement during my gap year in Israel. I am proud to have Palestinian and Muslim friends, with whom I often disagree regarding the conflict, but have civil and constructive relationships.

None of this has absolutely anything to do with me being a British Jew, and anyone who suggests it does is patently antisemitic. But why?  

For starters, contrary to what both ‘asajews’ on the political left and classical antisemites on the right would have you believe, Jews are not a monolith. We are a nation comprised of individual people, just as Christians or Muslims. To quote Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?’ Each Jewish person approaches their Judaism and politics from different angles—for some, they are connected, but for many, they are simply not. Thus, to attack all Jews, regardless of their individual attributes, is plainly antisemitic and constitutes collective blame.

Secondly, the issue of a ‘double standard’ emerges from this. All of the respectful people I acquaint myself with would be horrified if someone blamed all Christians, for instance, for the affiliations of a single Christian politician. The same, it seems, does not apply to Jews.  

Finally, it reinforces centuries-old stereotypes contending Jews are united in power, politics and influence. Jews, as previously established, are not a monolith, and to tar all Jews with the same brush simply plays into these same racist tropes used to dehumanise and murder Jews for centuries.  

So, yes, it is wrong to blame Jews for their own deaths.

Increasingly, I find myself at a loss as to whether there is any hope left for British Jews. Increasingly, I am reminded of the idiom that at some point, our ancestors said, “I don’t like the vibe here, let’s get on a boat,” saving them from certain death. Increasingly, I am wondering if I am going to have to be that person for my family.  

I would sign off by saying Shana Tova, but I will wait for a time when I think that might feel true.