It has come as little surprise that the dreadful stabbing attack on two members of the Golders Green Jewish community going innocently about their business this afternoon has been formally declared a terrorist incident. The video footage that has been shared widely in the press and across social media shows in graphic detail both the absolute unprovoked horror of the attack and the extraordinary bravery of police officers as they fought with the knife-wielding assailant. Thankfully the two victims, aged 76 and 34 are in a stable condition in hospital, and the 45 year old suspect – who is said by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to have a history of serious violence and mental health issues – is safely in custody.

At this early stage of investigations it has yet to be established definitively whether or not today’s attack was random, or targeted specifically at members of the Jewish community, but for those living in Golders Green – and indeed Jewish people everywhere – that hardly matters; antisemitic attacks have been increasing significantly ever since the Iran war started and there is now a really urgent sense amongst Jewish communities that its simply not safe for them to be walking about on British streets.

Speaking shortly after the news of the attacks broke, chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mervis called for British voices across the country to stand with the Jewish community and condemn the attacks.

“I’m sad to say that today’s event proves that if you are visibly Jewish you’re not safe, and far more needs to be done,” Sir Ephraim told the BBC.

“It’s a sustained effort to terrorise the Jewish community, which will not succeed, because we’re a strong and resilient community. We face these kind of attacks and these incidents with great fortitude. However, this cannot be allowed to continue. We need to tackle not just symptoms, but also the causes. We need to recognise that state-sponsored terrorism on the streets of our country is simply unacceptable.”

Sir Ephraim’s fears are certainly supported by figures from the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that monitors antisemitism in the UK. According to CST antisemitic incidents have risen sharply over the past decade and the organisation has previously linked surges in reports to periods of heightened tension in the Middle East, as well as increased online activity and reporting awareness.

Nerves have also been frayed by claims received from a shadowy group associated with the Iranian regime that they were behind today’s attack. Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (Hayi) – which translates as The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand – have previously sought to claim responsibility for Jewish-linked attacks in the UK, and the group took to social media this evening to claim that their “lone” attacker was behind the incident. Given what we know and have seen, this seems like a purely opportunistic claim but it nevertheless reveals that the UK Jewish community is confronting an existential threat that has moved far beyond a few random thugs and deluded political agitators.

Visiting the scene shortly after the attack, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that the safety of Jewish people in the UK is now a “national emergency” and London Mayor Sadiq Khan added that “ordinary Londoners have a responsibility to show allyship and solidarity to Jewish people”. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was quick to promise that the government will “strain every sinew” to keep the Jewish community safe and even told reporters that “we will go further,” including taking action to tackle the “root causes” of antisemitism in society.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hastily convened a Cobra meeting to co-ordinate the government’s immediate response to the immediate attack and told reporters after the meeting that the government needs to “take measures to deal with malign state actors, but we also have to be really clear that we need to get to the root causes of extremism and antisemitism, and so that is what we’re doing”.

“It’s our job to make sure [Jewish communities] feel safe and secure. It’s our job to make sure that we absolutely deal with the roots of antisemitism and extremism,” he said, “that is what we will do.”

Unfortunately, to many in the British Jewish community all of this will sound far too much like yet another blast of opportunistic political rhetoric – legislators’ promises of action, protection and ‘getting to the root causes of antisemitism’ have been with us as long as the political establishment itself but for those on the receiving end the situation is simply getting progressively worse, and more dangerous.

Much of this is because politicians tend to see antisemitism as an occasional or random societal problem that only arises in the wake of certain accentuating situations – presently the Iran war – and that therefore it’s an issue that will subside on its own when circumstances change. Thus there is a low priority to take action, and recommendations tend towards strategies of short-term containment and risk reduction, which in effect diminishes and even ignores altogether the far more urgent and fundamental ‘root causes of antisemitism’ problem.

Most experts agree that antisemitism is almost certainly one of human society’s oldest hatreds, stretching back as far as the Greek and Roman worlds. The politician and lawyer Cicero (106-43BC) once reminded a jury of “the odium of Jewish gold” and the Roman historian Tacitus (c.56-120AD) expressed his contempt for “base and abominable” Jewish customs. In later Christian theology of course the notion of the Adversus Judaeos (arguments against the Jews) was a very early tradition that saw its way all through to the Crucifixion, the end of the New Testament and well beyond. As the influential Catholic American theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether once observed: “The mythical Jew, who is the eternal conspiratorial enemy of Christian faith, spirituality and redemption, was … shaped to serve as the scapegoat for [the ills of] secular industrial society.”

Whilst this was undoubtedly true of 19^th and 20^th century industrialised societies, there has often been the presumption that the horrors of the Holocaust have somehow served to dissolve – or at least diminish – subconscious societal attitudes towards Jewish people. Whilst there may have been an initial post-war response of outrage and empathy it’s equally clear that antisemitism is not receding, but rather is gaining in intensity and focus, and now has shifted as a mechanism of blame away from being the scapegoat of failed economics, to being the scapegoat of failed political ideologies.

One only has to look at the way that across Europe, the United States and Australia far-right movements have adopted ostensibly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel positions to mobilise opposition to migration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, and deflect accusations of racism to recognise that the antisemitism of these movements is primarily a strategic rhetorical stance. Sadly, the same false narrative has also affected many left-of-centre groups, such as some pro-Palestinian activists, who point to equally false narratives around Zionism as justification for their own underlying antisemitism.

This does make antisemitism sound like an issue affecting just the extreme ends of the socio-political spectrum, and indeed even very recent British political history in this area has been defined by politicians on the left placing antisemitism firmly to the right (as in Labour’s approach to Reform, Tommy Robinson etc), whilst the political right has insisted that the real antisemitic threat sits to the left (for instance accusations of antisemitism have swirled consistently around the Labour Party, especially during the Corbyn era).

What these accusations and counter claims actually reveal is that anti-Jewish hate actually comes from all political ideologies, races and religions and – with the emergence of the internet age and its promise of limitless social interconnectivity – the mechanisms for perpetuating and amplifying subconscious human prejudices and hatred have only magnified immeasurably over the past few decades.

A typical case in point would be the antisemitic comments made on social media by the troubled rapper turned designer Kanye West. At the time West made his comments he had more than 33 million followers on X, two million on TikTok and more than 77 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

As West himself later found out when the organisers of the London-based Wireless Festival dumped him off their bill and he was subsequently banned from entering the UK, a person cannot be separated from the potential consequences of their words and actions. What made the West episode so unacceptable was that the artist’s admiration for Hitler and the release of a song titled ‘Heil Hitler’ was fully intended to provoke controversy and enhance the performer’s status. For others – as we’ve witnessed graphically today – the irrational vilification of one particular group of people has consequences and, more often than not, deadly consequences.

Academics, philosophers, historians, legislators and all manner of expert commentators will have their share of theories about why antisemitism has been so persistent and destructive across the centuries of human society, but the nub of the matter is that – for all our aspirations to diversity and inclusivity – we still haven’t learnt to trust our neighbour, nor to shed our ancient and redundant suspicions of anyone who simply doesn’t conform to our narrow definition of normality and conformity. Until we’ve shed that ancient burden, antisemitism is a problem we’ll never really understand – nor be able to deal with.

Joseph Kelly is a Catholic writer and public theologian

It has come as little surprise that the dreadful stabbing attack on two members of the Golders Green Jewish community going innocently about their business this afternoon has been formally declared a terrorist incident. The video footage that has been shared widely in the press and across social media shows in graphic detail both the absolute unprovoked horror of the attack and the extraordinary bravery of police officers as they fought with the knife-wielding assailant. Thankfully the two victims, aged 76 and 34 are in a stable condition in hospital, and the 45 year old suspect – who is said by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to have a history of serious violence and mental health issues – is safely in custody.

At this early stage of investigations it has yet to be established definitively whether or not today’s attack was random, or targeted specifically at members of the Jewish community, but for those living in Golders Green – and indeed Jewish people everywhere – that hardly matters; antisemitic attacks have been increasing significantly ever since the Iran war started and there is now a really urgent sense amongst Jewish communities that its simply not safe for them to be walking about on British streets.

Speaking shortly after the news of the attacks broke, chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mervis called for British voices across the country to stand with the Jewish community and condemn the attacks.

“I’m sad to say that today’s event proves that if you are visibly Jewish you’re not safe, and far more needs to be done,” Sir Ephraim told the BBC.

“It’s a sustained effort to terrorise the Jewish community, which will not succeed, because we’re a strong and resilient community. We face these kind of attacks and these incidents with great fortitude. However, this cannot be allowed to continue. We need to tackle not just symptoms, but also the causes. We need to recognise that state-sponsored terrorism on the streets of our country is simply unacceptable.”

Sir Ephraim’s fears are certainly supported by figures from the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that monitors antisemitism in the UK. According to CST antisemitic incidents have risen sharply over the past decade and the organisation has previously linked surges in reports to periods of heightened tension in the Middle East, as well as increased online activity and reporting awareness.

Nerves have also been frayed by claims received from a shadowy group associated with the Iranian regime that they were behind today’s attack. Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (Hayi) – which translates as The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand – have previously sought to claim responsibility for Jewish-linked attacks in the UK, and the group took to social media this evening to claim that their “lone” attacker was behind the incident. Given what we know and have seen, this seems like a purely opportunistic claim but it nevertheless reveals that the UK Jewish community is confronting an existential threat that has moved far beyond a few random thugs and deluded political agitators.

Visiting the scene shortly after the attack, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that the safety of Jewish people in the UK is now a “national emergency” and London Mayor Sadiq Khan added that “ordinary Londoners have a responsibility to show allyship and solidarity to Jewish people”. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was quick to promise that the government will “strain every sinew” to keep the Jewish community safe and even told reporters that “we will go further,” including taking action to tackle the “root causes” of antisemitism in society.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hastily convened a Cobra meeting to co-ordinate the government’s immediate response to the immediate attack and told reporters after the meeting that the government needs to “take measures to deal with malign state actors, but we also have to be really clear that we need to get to the root causes of extremism and antisemitism, and so that is what we’re doing”.

“It’s our job to make sure [Jewish communities] feel safe and secure. It’s our job to make sure that we absolutely deal with the roots of antisemitism and extremism,” he said, “that is what we will do.”

Unfortunately, to many in the British Jewish community all of this will sound far too much like yet another blast of opportunistic political rhetoric – legislators’ promises of action, protection and ‘getting to the root causes of antisemitism’ have been with us as long as the political establishment itself but for those on the receiving end the situation is simply getting progressively worse, and more dangerous.

Much of this is because politicians tend to see antisemitism as an occasional or random societal problem that only arises in the wake of certain accentuating situations – presently the Iran war – and that therefore it’s an issue that will subside on its own when circumstances change. Thus there is a low priority to take action, and recommendations tend towards strategies of short-term containment and risk reduction, which in effect diminishes and even ignores altogether the far more urgent and fundamental ‘root causes of antisemitism’ problem.

Most experts agree that antisemitism is almost certainly one of human society’s oldest hatreds, stretching back as far as the Greek and Roman worlds. The politician and lawyer Cicero (106-43BC) once reminded a jury of “the odium of Jewish gold” and the Roman historian Tacitus (c.56-120AD) expressed his contempt for “base and abominable” Jewish customs. In later Christian theology of course the notion of the Adversus Judaeos (arguments against the Jews) was a very early tradition that saw its way all through to the Crucifixion, the end of the New Testament and well beyond. As the influential Catholic American theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether once observed: “The mythical Jew, who is the eternal conspiratorial enemy of Christian faith, spirituality and redemption, was … shaped to serve as the scapegoat for [the ills of] secular industrial society.”

Whilst this was undoubtedly true of 19^th and 20^th century industrialised societies, there has often been the presumption that the horrors of the Holocaust have somehow served to dissolve – or at least diminish – subconscious societal attitudes towards Jewish people. Whilst there may have been an initial post-war response of outrage and empathy it’s equally clear that antisemitism is not receding, but rather is gaining in intensity and focus, and now has shifted as a mechanism of blame away from being the scapegoat of failed economics, to being the scapegoat of failed political ideologies.

One only has to look at the way that across Europe, the United States and Australia far-right movements have adopted ostensibly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel positions to mobilise opposition to migration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, and deflect accusations of racism to recognise that the antisemitism of these movements is primarily a strategic rhetorical stance. Sadly, the same false narrative has also affected many left-of-centre groups, such as some pro-Palestinian activists, who point to equally false narratives around Zionism as justification for their own underlying antisemitism.

This does make antisemitism sound like an issue affecting just the extreme ends of the socio-political spectrum, and indeed even very recent British political history in this area has been defined by politicians on the left placing antisemitism firmly to the right (as in Labour’s approach to Reform, Tommy Robinson etc), whilst the political right has insisted that the real antisemitic threat sits to the left (for instance accusations of antisemitism have swirled consistently around the Labour Party, especially during the Corbyn era).

What these accusations and counter claims actually reveal is that anti-Jewish hate actually comes from all political ideologies, races and religions and – with the emergence of the internet age and its promise of limitless social interconnectivity – the mechanisms for perpetuating and amplifying subconscious human prejudices and hatred have only magnified immeasurably over the past few decades.

A typical case in point would be the antisemitic comments made on social media by the troubled rapper turned designer Kanye West. At the time West made his comments he had more than 33 million followers on X, two million on TikTok and more than 77 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

As West himself later found out when the organisers of the London-based Wireless Festival dumped him off their bill and he was subsequently banned from entering the UK, a person cannot be separated from the potential consequences of their words and actions. What made the West episode so unacceptable was that the artist’s admiration for Hitler and the release of a song titled ‘Heil Hitler’ was fully intended to provoke controversy and enhance the performer’s status. For others – as we’ve witnessed graphically today – the irrational vilification of one particular group of people has consequences and, more often than not, deadly consequences.

Academics, philosophers, historians, legislators and all manner of expert commentators will have their share of theories about why antisemitism has been so persistent and destructive across the centuries of human society, but the nub of the matter is that – for all our aspirations to diversity and inclusivity – we still haven’t learnt to trust our neighbour, nor to shed our ancient and redundant suspicions of anyone who simply doesn’t conform to our narrow definition of normality and conformity. Until we’ve shed that ancient burden, antisemitism is a problem we’ll never really understand – nor be able to deal with.

Joseph Kelly is a Catholic writer and public theologian