Dave Rich, author of The Left’s Jewish Problem… (2016), now turns his attention to a wider examination of antisemitism. This new book is full of troubling stories, but one of the more disturbing revelations turns up quite late on, when Rich explains how antisemitism is growing among the young in Britain. Unlike other forms of racism, antisemitism rises as you move down the generations. Those under 25 are “the least likely to say they are just as open to having Jewish friends as they are to having friends from other sections of British society”. More than a quarter of young people agree that “Jews have disproportionate control of powerful institutions, and use that power for their own benefit and against the good of the general population”, compared with just 6% of those over 65.
This alone tells us why Rich’s book is so important. Such rising hatred demands that we take antisemitism more seriously and that we look at how we got here. Although I am Jewish myself, I am pretty ignorant of much of the relevant history. I was shaken by some of Rich’s stories from 12th-century England, for instance, when the Crusades led to a huge increase in antisemitic violence. Jews were banned from attending the coronation of King Richard I in 1189, and when some attended anyway, they “were set upon by the crowd, who beat around 30 of them to death”.
