Rejecting the British state’s philosemitic embrace in the wake of the Manchester attack

I wanted to write something on the events in Manchester on the 2^nd October, on the Yom Kippur that has just passed. Most important is to state the obvious: that this was a terrible crime, that everyone should oppose such attacks, and that we should name and mourn the victims, Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz. Their names alone typify them as British Jews – classic Anglo first names of a certain generation with a touch of Ashkenazi in their surnames. They are British Jewish everymen – it could have been any of us. At the same time, it’s important to be as specific as possible about their lives. This happened to particular much-loved individuals, at one synagogue: Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Crumpsall, in a Manchester suburb I have never visited but feel like I know well from reading Howard Jacobson novels. It’s worth noting that this is completely unprecedented; as far as I am aware there have been no cases of antisemitic killing of Jews in Britain since the Second World War, after the deportation of Jews from the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands during WW2. I am not aware of any cases since the 1656 readmission, even though I would imagine there were at least some in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Despite the doom mongers, Britain has been, and remains, one of the safest and most comfortable places to be Jewish in the world