I grew up in a small village in South Wales, and although my family was the only Jewish family there, I never, ever encountered any anti-Semitism. School friends were much more interested in learning about my religion than being antagonistic towards it.
When I came to London and became a comedian, the fact that I was the only Jewish and Welsh comedian on the circuit was met with laughter (in a good way) and not contempt.
Over the years I have made many friends in the comedy world. Although we may have disagreed over things – mainly about who took the last beer from the fridge in the Dressing Room or which comedians do or do not deserve to be on Live at the Apollo– we never really argued about politics or religion. Until now.
It was subtle at first, little comments and asides, but over the past few months it has become progressively, or regressively, worse.
Of course, much of it is my own doing. You see I have, publicly, been airing my concerns about the horrific rise of anti-Semitism around the world and how it seems to have become more prevalent in the UK since Jeremy Corbyn became leader. So, I have therefore clearly opened myself up for the abuse I have received. Being called a “Filthy Tory” (never voted for them) or “Zio scum” (never really talked about Israel) or “Typical Jew” (perhaps) by comedian friends whom I have known for over 20 years is what I deserve for questioning anything. I have been sent vile personal messages on social media, been ‘blocked’ by people and stopped being booked by many clubs. But, as I said, it’s my own fault. Had I kept quiet about it as some other Jewish comedians have, then perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. After all, keeping quiet in the past hasn’t had bad consequences, right?
I was recently asked in an interview if I thought Jeremy Corbyn was himself anti-Semitic. I explained that I didn’t think he was but only he knows the answer, in the same way that only he, and perhaps his orthopaedist, knows whether or not he really doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.But I do believe he hasn’t done enough to curb its rise in the Labour party.
Like many Jewish lifelong Labour voters, I now feel lost. Whilst I agree with many of the policies in the Labour manifesto, I cannot bring myself to vote for a party that hasn’t done enough to quell the rise of Jew hatred. And the fact that the support has become so tribalistic is concerning. It’s almost like a devoted football fan; “Yes my team might have made a couple of mistakes and scored some own goals, but I will always support them and think that all supporters of other teams are scum”. When did this happen? And when did football-style chanting become a thing in politics? When did the whole Politician Fanbase start? I have no memory of people in the 80’s wearing a “I Heart Neil Kinnock T-Shirt” or singing “Oh… Micha…el Fo…ot”.
And then there’s the hypocrisy. Here’s an example of a recent conversation:
Labour Friend: “I know you don’t like Corbyn but you are voting for the party not the leader”
Me: “I understand that, but I’ve decided to vote Lib Dem”
Labour Friend: “What?!?!? But Jo Swinson is basically a Tory!!”
Me: “But …you just said…..”
Then there’s the ‘whataboutery’ when I get asked “Well what about Islamophobia in the Tory party?!” As if two wrongs will suddenly make everything right. Islamophobia should be dealt with as much as Anti-Semitism and any other form of racism or bigotry. Acknowledging anti-Semitism does not mean you are ignoring everything else!
At a recent gig I asked if any of the audience members were Welsh. A few put their up their hands and we chatted about Wales (it was funny – you had to be there) I then asked if any audience members were Jewish. No hands were raised. After the gig, three separate people quietly approached me and told me that they were Jewish but did not want to admit to it in a public space. This is where we are now. One of these people actually told me that they recently had to leave their home in the South West – where they had lived their whole life – as they were petrified by the rise of anti Semitism in the area.
But, when I speak about any of this on social media, I am told that it’s all lies and smears (which will no doubt also be the reaction to this article) or, as has happened on several occasions, I have friends sending me private messages or texts with: “What’s All This Anti-Semitism I Keep Hearing About?? Can you send me some proof? Thanks xx”
Oh and to those who respond with: “Yeah, but what about Israel?” I’m afraid it doesn’t work as a justification, it would be the same as blaming all British people for the actions of the UK Government. And saying that Israel is the cause of anti-Semitism doesn’t work either as anti-Semitism was around way before Israel existed.
So what happens next? If Labour wins then, as with Brexit, I’m worried that many will see this as an excuse to be even more vocal, so anti-Semitism will increase. If Labour lose, many will no doubt blame the Jews for the ‘smear campaign’ so anti-Semitism will increase.
I really hope I’m wrong about all this. I’m just really worried that I’m not.
Bennett Arron 
I’m neither Jewish nor Welsh (sorry!). It gets worse – I was brought up in the Forest of Dean, and we were taught to be suspicious of the Welsh, and also peculiar looking mushrooms. I think I’ve managed to overcome that now, though I am still very careful about mushrooms.
But I didn’t witness institutional and prolonged anti-Semitism until after 2015. You have friends and supporters and allies. Even amongst us goyim.
Hi Bennett, Labour member in peace. To be fair this is much more considered than some of your tweets. As someone who only hears your opinions via social media, I assumed you were a Tory and I assumed you think Corbyn is , himself, an Anti Semite. I don’t apologise for that. It’s the impression you gave me.
I’m a lifelong Labour voter and for me it’s always been tribal. My view of the Conservatives is that they love money more than they love people. They are against progress and I am against them.
I don’t think Corbyn’s ‘fanbase’ is a new phenomenon. Maggie Thatcher had one, JFK had one. People are attracted to a ‘conviction’ politician. The perception is, he’s stuck to his principles throughout his career and he can’t be bought, (possibly because he got where he is almost by accident).
One of his principles has been a longstanding commitment to anti racism. He’s been working hard in this endeavour for decades when hardly anyone was paying attention to him. For this reason I find the idea that he has a blind spot to one particular type of racism, unlikely.
Everybody knows he’s a critic of the Israeli government, but as you rightly point out, Israel & Jews aren’t the same thing. Many people conflate the two. Unfortunately this includes a number of people inside the party. The leadership were definitely slow off the mark in dealing with this. Given the huge increase in membership in the last 4 years, I’m not surprised, but they definitely need to do more and this has been acknowledged.
What does irk me is the complete lack of attention to AS in the other parties. Currently 2 Tory and one Lib Dem parliamentary candidates are suspended over it. How much reporting of this has there been? This is not whataboutism, just a desire to see an even handed approach. The lack of such an approach is what leads to the accusations of a smear campaign.
Naively, I once though AS had almost died out. It’s horrifying that many Jews in this country again feel more insecure about their lives. As with the fear of most crime, I hope the perception is worse than the reality. If your enemies are out there, I’d like to think they are my enemies too.
This post is an example of tribalism. “My Party, right or wrong”.
“One of his principles has been a longstanding commitment to anti racism […] For this reason I find the idea that he has a blind spot to one particular type of racism, unlikely.”
BUT THE EVIDENCE. You sound like Trump denying, denying, denying in the face of overwhelming, damning, incontrovertible evidence.
In the 1930’s, Germans said the same things.
It doesn’t really help that you’ve basically accepted the premise of their arguments.
Jeremy Corbyn IS antisemitic. He has nodded along on stage while people call for Jewish civilians to be murdered. If that doesn’t make him an antisemite, I’m not sure what does.
And what about Israel? Why shouldn’t Jews have their own country? Especially seeing as no-one else seems to want them in theirs. And why shouldn’t the government of that country protect it’s people when Corbyn’s friends come to kill them? Any other responsible government would.
We’re in this mess because so many Jews have internalised antisemitism themselves. And we won’t get out of it until they learn to be ‘out and proud’ again.
Well said!
Thank you Bennett. I’m Jew(ish), comes down my father’s line not my mother’s. I’m a life long socialist, feminist and activist for social change. I am utterly devastated by Corbyn’s stand on both Israel and the feelings of UK Jews. I am old enough to know what kind of socialism Corbyn and his mates think they can bring to the UK and I have no idea whether it is even vaguely possible for them to keep out this terrifying Tory Government. But they are not going the right way about it, that I do know. I am almost certain that they are unelectable and that is another thing that I cannot forgive them for. Take care X
The irony here is you have bought into the biggest manipulation of all. Anti-Zionism is now mainstream acceptable and you have just legitimised it. Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East, the one that has 1.9 million Muslim citizens with full and equal rights with the Jewish ones (in the Arab countries the JEWS who lived there for thousands of years have been systematically decimated or expelled), the tiny country that gave away chunks of its land for peace and received in return daily attacks on its innocent civilians, the one that has given the world more life enhancing inventions than any other country in the history of the world …
You reinforce the hatred by saying “Israel and the Jews aren’t the same thing”. Israel is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. If you aren’t proud of this amazing little country, if you don’t defend it from the constant lies, slurs and propaganda, then you are in fact facilitating the rise in anti-Semitism.
So scared of being accused of “dual loyalty”. Why can’t you stand proud and say “I have dual loyalty, both to my place of birth and to my ancestral homeland. They don’t conflict. Why should they? Remember Britain and Israel are allies!”
Has a single British Muslim been called on to defend their dual loyalty to Britain and to the Palestinian cause? Has Jeremy Corbyn?
You are one of the few people to have criticised the article. And telling me that I have facilitated the rise of anti Semitism is vile
Clearly you have written what was in most ways an excellent article and I am extremely sorry if I didn’t first say that. (I have in fact posted it on my Facebook page)
But I will ask you please, however you may resent my comment, to read it again in the spirit which it was intended. I wanted to make you aware of something that happens a lot – to strengthen your defence, not to insult you or put you on the defensive Chas v’shalom 😦
You can disagree with my perception of the situation and certainly if the way I wrote failed to show that I thought what your writing was insightful and well written you are entitled to be cross – again I can only apologise.
However, is that a reason to react with words like “vile” which I am afraid I (perhaps wrongly) take to mean you think it is I who is vile?
I meant the comment was vile, upsetting and unnecessary. Not you as a person. I don’t know you. I understand your comment, I just didn’t think I would find myself defending the article in this way. I really appreciate that you liked it and thank you for sharing.
Spot on, Bennett. You completely reflect the difference between my experience growing up, and what’s “in the air” now.
And Jeremy Corbyn couldn’t even bring himself to go through the motions of making an apology – he’s no leader, even if he isn’t a bad man.
I have every sympathy with you. I will be voting Labour because I have a parent with dementia and a wife with mental health issues and unfortunately I have seen how terrible the current support is. I feel selfish, but I believe Labour are more likely to address these issues than conservatives and they are the major issues in my life right now.
I believe there are enough good, decent Labour MPs, members and supporters that yours and other Jewish members worst fears won’t be realised. I hope none of your fears will be.
Apologies.
Hi Bennett
Lovely piece – enjoyed reading it.
What you’ve highlighted is something that increasingly has become a feature of everyday life – that of pigeonholing people into groups or categories, based on religion, skin colour, race, nationality, sexual preference, or indeed any one of a dozen or so genders (some brand ones!) we seem to have been saddled with. If anything, you’ve made the task for others easier by highlighting a couple of our own particular categories – that of being Welsh and Jewish.
As you’ll have gathered from my surname, I’m not Welsh but, to quote the blessed Monty Python, I am a Red Sea pedestrian and proud of it. I grew up in Westcliff in Essex, so again I wasn’t the only ‘Oy Vey in the Village’ – nevertheless I still grew up in an atmosphere, where although not overtly and openly anti-Semitic, it was definitely bubbling under the surface and would occasionally rear its ugly head and even from some totally unexpected sources.
Unlike you, I didn’t have any curiosity value with my peers and so-called ‘betters’. I once received a comment from a teacher at the grammar school I attended, to quote, ‘that’s just typical from you people’. I’ve never been shy in coming forward (and fully aware of just what he meant by it) ‘Me people, Sir? Which people? West Ham fan? Dr Who appreciation society? Dog lover? I’m not getting your meaning…. It went away. Even at fifteen, I was aware that there are good and bad in all groups of people and his comment was based on a bad one or more that he’d encountered – unlike you being on your own, I had plenty of fellow local Hebrews from which he could make that comparison. Good and bad in groups is a thing, right? For the record, the teacher concerned was a rugby coach/economics master from Llanelli – just goes to show….
From school, I moved to Germany to live and work amongst people whose relatives (it was the 80’s) had been complicit in making lampshades and soap from my relatives. Like you, I became a source of intrigue and curiosity. The closest I came to anything uncomfortable was when registering my residence/work permit at the local town hall, whilst going through the form, the lady had to tick one or other box for ‘church tax’. Evangelical or Catholic? She asked. Jewish, came the reply. ‘You can’t be!’ came the reply. Really? I asked – the Nazis didn’t quite finish the job, you know. – this came as a bit of a blow to the lady who had only meant that she didn’t have a ‘Jewish’ box to tick on her form. You’ve never seen such embarrassment or an apology or indeed a residence permit granted so quickly in all your life.
The problem we have is that not contented merely to put us in a box labelled ‘Jewish’, people strive to find further subsets. Instead of restricting themselves to the above mentioned ‘Good Jew/Bad Jew’ choice and moving on, they want to make connections that simply do not stack up. To assume all Jews are pro-Israel is a favourite of mine. Yes I am in favour of the State of Israel per se, but not always in agreement with its government’s policies – as a democratic country that can’t seem to agree enough amongst themselves to elect a majority government themselves in their short history, so what chance do I have answering for them?
As a Brit that works for a Singaporean owned furniture manufacturer with Malaysian, Chinese and even a Brazilian born American colleagues, working with retailers across the world, I have enough to deal with, amongst other things, defending the UK’s 19th Century colonial policies and late 20th Century monetary policies to worry about the rights and wrongs of various Israeli governments – and don’t even get me started on Brexit…… I took a call from Germany in June ’16 – simple question ‘What the hell have you done?’ ME??
Bottom line – the goodies outnumber the baddies. If the opinions of those who wish us harm are not called out and identified as being based on ignorance, untruth, myths or superstitions, they will soon become accepted as fact. Facts are harder to tackle in arguments than any fictions created.
Keep doing what you’re doing – loving your work.
Thank you Martin
I have enjoyed reading your article and find it well written and soundly based on the way we find things now in 2019. I was born Welsh and brought up in old Aberavon.I too have only ever voted Labour but find it ever more difficult to support J.C as leader.
My one observation on the issue of anti Semitism within the Labour Party takes a more basic approach to the issue there is an absolute dire need for the leader to look straight into the eyes of us all and convincingly show us through good example there is no place for anti Semitism anywhere in the world.So far he has skirted around the issue and has failed to convince anyone.
I believe there are enough good, decent Labour MPs, members and supporters that yours and other Jewish members worst fears won’t be realised.
Long may you continue to make us laugh.
Thank you Terry