Post by jojo on Dec 9, 2018 9:33:59 GMT
I grew up in an area with very few Jewish people, before moving to a not particularly Jewish area of London for a few years. I later moved to an area with a high Jewish population, and it was only then that I fully appreciated just how anxious many Jewish people are about security and how naïve I was to think anti-Semitism was a thing of the past, or isolated to the odd joke about bacon sandwiches. If I attended an event (such as a public meeting) at one of the synagogues, there would be a thorough bag search at a time when this was unusual for anything other than booze at festivals, and when I needed to attend a Jewish school as part of my work, they insisted that I had a CRB check. I did think that the CRB check was a bit pointless (I wasn't going to be anywhere near the kids), but I already had one, and to be honest, if people have sincere concerns, then it's pretty tasteless to argue about it.
I'm not anything like qualified to speculate on whether American Jewish people are safer than British ones, but I do know that the murder rate in the US is higher than in the UK, so I'm going to take a punt and say that Americans are just used to a higher level of violence to start with.
I'm back living in an area with few Jews, and don't know if my experience of living in a Jewish area has made me more alert, but I have been conscious of worrying levels of anti-Jewish sentiment in the last few years. Some people seem to think it's OK to 'other' Jews, because they are assumed to be rich and powerful, what with all that being part of the global world order and all that. I find that attitude hugely disturbing.
I'm not anything like qualified to speculate on whether American Jewish people are safer than British ones, but I do know that the murder rate in the US is higher than in the UK, so I'm going to take a punt and say that Americans are just used to a higher level of violence to start with.
I'm back living in an area with few Jews, and don't know if my experience of living in a Jewish area has made me more alert, but I have been conscious of worrying levels of anti-Jewish sentiment in the last few years. Some people seem to think it's OK to 'other' Jews, because they are assumed to be rich and powerful, what with all that being part of the global world order and all that. I find that attitude hugely disturbing.
