"I told you so". What fighting antisemitism meant to me in 2022.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place Friday 27 January to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. This year’s theme is ‘ordinary people.’

Both the perpetrators and the victims of genocidal events are ordinary people. The Holocaust Memorial Trust asks us to consider how ordinary people “perhaps play a bigger part than we might imagine in challenging prejudice today.”

In this blog, BASW member Paul Shuttleworth warns about the serious threat posed to the Jewish community of increasing levels and visibility of antisemitism in society today and the important responsibility we all have in listening and connecting to Jewish people, standing with them against discriminatory behaviour and exposing, calling out and challenging antisemitism in all forms.

Along with other Jewish social workers, I have been working hard over the last year to raise awareness about the need for safer environments for Jewish people in the social care sector. We have established the first Jewish Social Workers Group in the United Kingdom.

However, many people from my parents' and grandparents' generations have advised me to keep a little more schtum and not draw attention to myself. With the Holocaust still very much part of their living memories, they worry about the increasing antisemitism worldwide and in the UK, and that antisemitism is becoming more mainstream.

And they are right. This year, Ye (Kanye West) tweeted "Death Con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE", followed by other anti-Semitic remarks, such as his admiration for Hitler. Subsequently, we have seen disputes all over the media over whether Ye was even partly correct about 'too many Jews', their power and influence, and if Jewish people are indeed the 'true Jews'.

Ye has more social media followers than there are Jewish people worldwide. Antisemitic rhetoric has grown more public than I've ever seen, with fewer people caring to confront it. I'm more terrified as a Jewish person than I've ever been. I'm afraid of violence and prejudice, and I can understand how easily something like the Holocaust can occur, particularly when searching for a group to blame during economic crises.

Some of Ye's contracts have been cancelled because of his statements. Yet this invokes the ‘lose-lose’ for Jewish people; if antisemitism does have negative repercussions, this is used to validate the antisemites 'trope’ about the ‘powerful influence’ Jews have.

Closer to home, I was at a local pub a few weeks back when an 'entertainer' made several antisemitic jokes, one about the Holocaust. This, thankfully, was met with horror and silence. My response to my worried partner was that I now anticipated this level of casual jocular wit. It's become the backdrop to my life and the lives of Jewish people everywhere. And sometimes it's too exhausting to take a stand, mainly because we’ll just be the whining Jews who can't take a racist joke about ethnoreligious identity or their family's genocide.

There have been some encouraging developments this year. Court challenges against slanderous claims have been won, contracts have been cancelled, honours have been bestowed, and a new report on antisemitism in the NUS has been produced. Also, individuals have begun to talk to me and others about what antisemitism looks like in social work and elsewhere. However, it should be no surprise that each has its persistent detractors. Antisemitism cannot be exposed without an ‘I told you so’ and a 'gotcha' against Jews.

Even with positive developments, public apologies have been rare, and many have instead doubled down or attempted to mediate the 'debate' around antisemitism by taking ‘both sides’. The majority on the other side of the antisemitism ‘debate’ are not Jewish. And non-Jewish people are in the majority, so we know how that usually goes. There will be a consensus that Jews are the troublemakers who, sometimes unwittingly, oppose 'common sense', social justice, and anti-racism. Jewish people get caught out because others place tropes on them of scheming, noisy, entitled, Zionist, racist oppressors. Any ill-feeling or poor behaviour will ultimately be our fault.

Fighting these intergenerational tropes makes raising antisemitism risky and emotionally taxing for Jewish people. So, here’s the deal. Apparently, we’re good at making deals. Please don't dismiss the claims of Jewish individuals who know they're facing antisemitism. Also, if we say something important to us or recommend things that show our struggles, you should watch, listen to, or read them. By suggesting it, we are taking risks. Furthermore, compared to what goes on in the minds of Jewish people every day, it will take you a relatively tiny amount of time and headspace.

I'd want to end by saying thanks. Thank you to the handful of extra-ordinary people who did criticise Ye's behaviour and called it out. Thank you also to those who have taken the time and made an effort to listen and connect. Please don't give up, and please be more proactive than Jewish people on occasion. Sometimes we are just too exhausted to fight for ourselves and need, with consultation, others to do it on our behalf.

Non-Jewish people and organisations speaking out against antisemitism are vital because we depend on you. Jewish people depend on you to do the hard work to keep us safe and ensure that something like the Holocaust never happens again.

Read more about Holocaust Memorial Day here.