Why British Jews are experiencing their biggest change in 60 years

It's been an incredibly difficult two years, says Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

I believe our Jewish identity is being worn much more often these days, considering the agony of it all.

The Middle East war, he says, had a major influence on British Jewish society.

The attacks on October 7th were felt very personally, not least because there were British Jews killed in the initial assault and people with British connections were held hostage.

The devastation in Gaza in the ensuing war was extremely painful to watch. Then there was the vitriol that surrounded the whole affair, as well as the explosion of antisemitism that culminated in deadly attacks. "The tragic shooting on Bondi Beach last weekend, which targeted the Jewish community during Hanukkah's celebrations, as well as the other Middle Eastern attacks in the last two years, have had far-reaching consequences for Britain's estimated 300,000 Jews.

It's difficult to imagine such a strong turning point for British Jewish society, one that has so affecting daily life since the 1967 war in the Middle East. Many people are more secure and connected than ever before, and they are also connected to the rest of the community. With it, there are also signs that there have been shifts in discourse about Israel, including a generational divide that is beginning to emerge among British Jews. Opinion in the community is incredibly diverse, but here are the ways in which a number of British Jews told me that life has changed over the past two years.

Hate crimes and antisemitism

It felt like Jewish friends were more likely to comprehend,

Ben Dory, 33, who lives in London, says.

I have found more Jewish friends and also been more involved with the Jewish synagogue,

the author says.

In addition to being more active in synagogue, he has also been more involved in anti-semitism campaigns. That has in part due to the dramatic change in how secure he himself feels.

I know Jewish people who are going to the synagogue will hold their kippah (skull cap) until the door is opened and then take it off the moment they leave. Benny was shocked but not surprised after the attack in Australia last weekend, saying it was global frenzy of antisemitism.It's long been the case that gatherings related to Israel haven't felt secure.

Now Jews believe they are under constant attack, even at non-political cultural and religious gatherings,

he says. Over the past two years, he has become more active and vocal in his support for Israel. It is to a degree a retort that he claims is triggered by a surge in anti-Jewish extremism. According to the Home Office, there were 1,543 hate crimes directed at Jews in England and Wales in the year from March 2023 to March 2024, with a rise to 3,282 by March 2022. The following year's estimates are incomplete. However, the Community Security Trust, a group that has been monitoring antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom for nearly 40 years, claims that the figures over the last two years have been the highest since their records have been kept.

The Jewish people that I know are more aware of the importance of a secure Israel in case they have to flee there,

Ben says. Ever since Israel's founding after the Holocaust, the belief that Israel is needed as a safe haven has remained for many Jews, and this has been heightened as based on recent events.

I've never felt as vulnerable as a Jew as I do now,

Dame Louise Ellman, a former MP, says,

and the feeling I have shared among those I speak with in the Jewish community is reinforced.

She left Labour in 2019 after worries about antisemitism in the party, and re-election in 2021; she is also joint independent chair of the Board of Deputies, the country's largest body representing Jews. Dame Louise used to attend the Heaton Park synagogue in North Manchester. She was married there and her son's Bar Mitzvah was detained there. This was also where the in October attack, which killed two victims and three others critically wounded, necessitated hospitalization, was taking place. The shock she felt was amplified by her closeness to the synagogue.

People are becoming more concerned about getting edgy and feeling alone,

she says. I find this very distressing.All of this has led her to a position of more stead support for Israel,she says.I'm aware that a variety of people, particularly young people, are looking at this in a different way, but it is still a minority.

Tash Hyman, a 33-year-old theatre director from London, is one of those who has come to a very different conclusion about Israel. Even though the last two years have made her feel more connected to her Jewish identity, she says, for example, she has leaning more into Jewish activism traditions, she does not have a greater appreciation for Israel.

I grew up in a religious environment where my Jewish identity was very much linked to the state of Israel,she says, butI began to question that.

The state of Israel's activities make me feel less secure, not more secure.

It makes me less secure in the UK because of what they're doing in Gaza. She denies the belief that Israel is asecure haven

for British Jews. On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage. Since then, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Tash says that although some Jews accept Israel's activities, it is important that those who do not make it clear that there is no opposition to what Israel is doing from within the Jewish synagogue. She attends synagogue today but surrounds herself with those who are politically inclined, pointing out that the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war have made the nuanced discussion among British Jews about Israel all the more difficult.

It does certainly seem that there is a polarizing factor, and there is certainly no way to have that discussion across the divide because the divide is so large.

Zionism: a generational divide

According to study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a UK think tank that was collected before the Manchester attack and revealed in October, there is a generational divide in opinion among British Jews in terms of Israeli Jewish beliefs. According to the report, 4,822 British Jews over the age of 16 showed that the overall number identifying as Zionist was 64%, but that among the 20-30 age group, only 47% did. However, 20% of the population identify themselves as non Zionist and 24% as

anti-Zionist. (It was left to respondents to decide how to interpret those terms. ) The number of Jews who identify as anti-Zionist in 2022 has risen in both age groups, but the gap between older and younger groups has also increased. For example, 33% of 50-59 year olds polled in 2022 were anti-Zionist, a 10 point deficit compared to the 20-29 age group. It was a 17-point deficit by 2024, with 77% of 50-59 year olds saying they were anti-Zionist, compared to 24% for the younger group. (Comparable figures by age are not available long-term. B. Robert Cohen, a PhD student at King's College London, has done his own study into Jews in the United Kingdom who are now critical of Israel's activities in Gaza, as well as the reasons that led to their arrival in the position. He interviewed 21 people from February 2023 to October 2024 and has sought to clarify why a generational divide is emerging. He believes that for some young people's stance, they were the result of what he described as their

British Jewish ethics

on topics such as justice and charity joining together to support their

Gen Z sensibilities.

We know Gen Z are portrayed by authenticity, being extremely inclusive, and being very keen on justice issues,

he says.

I could see in my study group a merging of those elements with the Jewish values of their upbringing.

Some of the others I spoke to, including Ben Dory, suggested that a generational divide over views on Israel could be traced to young people having less of a direct link to the Holocaust and a lack of knowledge of its effects. Many British Jews who wanted to condemn Israel's activities in Gaza, Robert Cohen said, notably with others from the community who could better understand them, referring to the Jewish bloc at pro-Palestinian marches. He also spoke about some people's empathetic reaction to the Hamas attacks. "Some people were obviously distraught by the fact that they might have seen a complete lack of empathy for the Jewish Israeli victims of what happened on October 7th. Many of those he spoke to had fallen out with acquaintances or relatives, and many of those who were critical of Israel. However, over the past two years, many young British Jews have become more vocal about Israel, and this has also impacted family relationships with those around them.

'My friend group turned away from me'

Lavona Zarum was born in Israel and grew up in London. She was a student and had just been elected president of the University of Aberdeen at the time of the 7 October attacks. She recalls, I had quite a few people walk away.The girls in my main friend group, who all grew up from me over the summer,she says.She recalls how lonely she was and how difficult it was to talk to a lot of non-Jewish students about the way she felt about Israel's attacks and the war that followed. Certain social media messages by people she knew offended her, some of which were about globalizing the intifada.People seemed very comfortable saying what they wanted, and I had been very careful not to bring it up actually. I kind of retreated within myself.

Lavona is 21 now. Even if she disagree, she has since gravitated toward colleagues with whom she believes there is mutual admiration even if they disagree. Despite some differences in opinion, she returned to Israel six months later as part of a Union of Jewish Students fellowship, exploring some of the Hamas' sites where she said people

spoke kindly and shared thoughts.

The world was a bit more antisemitic than I had expected myself to believe before,

she says. But it's also backed myself up as I enter discussions that are more deliberate and thoughtful.

Discord within the Board

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has been asked repeatedly over the past two years how to conduct debating Israel. 36 of the board's members wrote an open letter, which was published in the Financial Times, condemning this most radical of Israeli governments and the board’s inability to release the hostages detained since September 7th.

Israel's soul is being ripped out, and we're concerned about the future of the Israel we love,

the letter said. For initiating the letter, five members of the Board were suspended. The Board's Constitution Committee determined that they had breached a code of conduct by presenting the

misleading belief that this [the letter] was] a Board-approved document as a whole. However, for those that were not, the letter was a watershed moment in which some of the discussions about Israel in private among the UK's Jewish community could have been held in public. According to Phil Rosenberg, the 300 deputies have long fought for a healthy discussion. His greatest worry right now is the safety of British Jews, but also how the neighborhood sees itself.

We have a whole range of initiatives to combat antisemitism,he says.We also agree that the neighborhood needs not only to be seen, but also to be able to see itself through the prism of pain.

It already wasn't correct that the sole public recognition of Jewish life in this region is Holocaust Memorial Day. And Holocaust education is the only compulsory education. Both of these aspects are extremely important, but not necessarily the Jewish experience.

When he first became president of the board in May 2024, Phil Rosenberg discussed the importance of Jews to British life. According to him, the events of the past two years have been detrimental to that.

The war has certainly made it more difficult because it is either a Jewish media outlet or a national newspaper, it's all bad news.

It's now, as a Jew in the United Kingdom, it's both daunting to be positive and frustrating to be hopeful.

As for the generational divide in British Jews over views on Israel, Robert Cohen estimates that the situation in the Middle East, as well as whether it results in greater rights for Palestinians, will determine whether it becomes more pronounced. The biggest issue for Ben Dory, particularly after the Bondi Beachand Manchester attacks, is about safety.

I believe that the future of Jewish people in the United Kingdom is on a real knife edge,he says.And how Britain responds to this threat in the short run will be extremely important for whether Britain will continue to be a place where Jews feel secure. " BBC InDepthis the home on the web and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the day's most important topics.