The Day My Kids Encountered Antisemitism in the Park
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After decades of leading British Jewry, Jeremy Jacobs has lost faith in his country and is moving to Israel. His reasons should alarm every Jew in the Diaspora.
Jeremy Jacobs has "lost faith in British society."
The former CEO of United Synagogue, the largest umbrella body for Orthodox Judaism in Britain, has decided to leave the UK and move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism.
His family roots in England run deep. His great-great-grandfather was treasurer of one of the original United Synagogue congregations. His ancestors arrived in the 1800s seeking safety, and for generations, they found it — a country where anti-Jewish prejudice was kept in check by the decency of ordinary Britons.
In an Aish.com interview, Jacobs points with pride to the fact his grandfather fought and died for Britain in World War I. His father served in World War II. Now 67, Jacobs remembers being called names and chased by Gentile schoolchildren growing up. But in today’s Britain, the fear he feels as a Jew is profoundly altered. A key difference, he feels, is the lack of allies coming to the aid of the Jewish community.
He points to the 1936 Battle of Cable Street as a model of what's been lost. When the British Union of Fascists tried to march through London's heavily Jewish East End, Jews and non-Jews fought side by side to stop them.
English people at the time “knew that Jews were part of the community and they valued the Jewish community,” Jacobs explains. “I don’t believe that is the case now.”
Britain’s Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish organization that tracks antisemitic incidents, reports an explosion in antisemitism since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel.
That year saw a record 4,298 antisemitic incidents in Britain, a huge increase. (The CST recorded 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022.) Antisemitism remains high, with 3,700 incidents recorded in 2025. Those include the deaths of two Jewish men in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, October 2, 2025, and the serious stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, a heavily Jewish area of London, on April 29, 2026.
Over 80% of British Jews now regard antisemitism as a “big” problem. About a third of British Jews have experienced antisemitism directly and over a third rate their safety in the United Kingdom as between 0-4 on a 10-point scale. (The percentage of British Jews who rated their safety similarly low before the October 7, 2023 attacks was under 10%.)
A recent poll found that since the October 7 attacks, nearly half of British Jews have experienced “ambient antisemitism,” including micro-aggressions, online antisemitism, and hostile comments in person or in the media. Trust in British institutions is at record lows, as is the belief that Britain’s institutions can help Jews in the face of this onslaught of antisemitism.
For Jacobs, a tipping point came two months after the October 7, 2023 attacks. He was walking near University College London with his family when suddenly they came under attack from anti-Israel protestors. “Students were protesting arms sales to Israel, and they started harassing us. They shouted at me because I was wearing a kippah. It was so uncomfortable, having to push my three young granddaughters forward, hoping that they weren’t fully aware of what was going on.”
Jacobs began noticing anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti near his home in a leafy area near London. Lampposts in his neighborhood began sporting stickers saying “Free Palestine.” On a walk in a peaceful wooded area near his home, he saw swastikas carved onto wooden posts marking the paths. “That increasing buildup of hatred is starting to become more and more apparent.”
We felt that time was beginning to run out.
Jacobs and his wife Karen began discussing the possibility of leaving their home. Thoughts of moving to Israel gained a new urgency. “We felt that time was beginning to run out,” he explains. The attack on worshippers in Manchester on Yom Kippur in 2025 helped them make their decision. Given the boiling point of anti-Israel hatred in Britain, they expected violence to break out. The response of officials in Britain shocked them: instead of calling out antisemitism by name, politician after politician called for an end to all forms of racism, including Islamophobia.
“It seems that our own pain cannot be separated from others. It is a significant problem.”
Jacobs points to the ever-increasing security Jews are forced to adopt in Britain and in other European countries. “We have to live our life behind barricades; it’s unacceptable.”
Jacobs’ young grandchildren have been told to hide the badges of their Jewish school on their school uniforms when they are out in public. “That doesn’t seem to me like a country where there is absolute freedom of religion.” He worries that there might come a time when it becomes so dangerous that Jews will have no choice but to leave Britain. “This way, we’re going on our own terms,” he explains.
The Jacobses were in Israel in June of 2025 when war with Iran broke out. Despite having to run to a bomb shelter several times a night, Jacobs explains they felt safer in Israel than they did at home in London. In Israel, if there were a problem, “everyone would come running to help us.” In Britain, Jacobs feels that most non-Jews would not act to help their Jewish neighbors.
More Jews are asking themselves the same question: how long do we wait?
Most of Jacobs’ friends are mulling whether or not to leave, too. Some of their closest friends are moving to Israel as well. At least one of their children plans to move as well. Since he’s announced his departure and put his home on the market, Jacobs has had inquiries from many people about his decision to go: “That’s what people talk about around Shabbat tables here; should we go, and when? That’s what’s on people’ minds here.”
Since the October 7, 2023 attacks, the number of British Jews reporting that they identify closely with Israel has increased. Three quarters of Jews now say they feel emotionally attached to Israel. 45% (up from 38% in 2022) now say that support for Israel is “very important” to their Jewish identity.
Many people around the world are asking themselves some variation of the questions Jacobs describes. A recent report found that nearly a third of Jewish doctors in Canada, for instance, are contemplating leaving the country due to rising antisemitism. In France, close to half of all Jews report considering leaving the country due to rising anti-Jewish hatred.
Jeremy Jacobs spent 67 years building a life in Britain. He watched his country change, waited for it to turn around, and finally stopped waiting. He is leaving not in panic, but with clarity — on his own terms, toward a place where he already feels at home. His story is playing out in Jewish communities across the world — and more Jews are asking themselves the same question: how long do we wait?
This seems like a thought-out, logical choice for this couple - we can all understand their reading of the situation in the UK and the bravery of moving at this age. At the same time, we cannot draw general conclusions. Those with teenage children should think twice about aliyah since kids can find the adjustment too traumatic and end up in a bad emotional place.