Calm Down: There Is Not Going to Be a Jewish Exodus From the UK

An anti-Semitic pro-Palestine banner in London in July, but such attitudes are not as prevalent as a new report suggests (Photo by Oscar Webb)

On the front page of this morning's Independent was a story suggesting the majority of Briton's 290,000-strong Jewish community fear they no longer have a future in the country. It's a stark and worrying figure, particularly at a time where debates about Jewish safety in Europe are being re-opened. But is it accurate? Are Jewish families in the UK really "at a tipping point"? Are we about to see a mass exodus?

The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) – the group behind the survey – is a grassroots organisation that formed in July 2014 during Israel's war on Gaza. At the time there was a perception that mainstream Jewish institutions were not doing enough to protect the community and the CAA aimed to fill that void, holding rallies, raising awareness and forging links with local authorities and the government.

Statistical analysis doesn't seem to be their strong point though. Today's research – which has now been reported on across the internet – is an alarmist, hysterical, methodologically flawed, amateur survey that makes almost no effort to represent the voices of the British Jewish community it claims to.

For starters, it was based on the opinions of around 2,230 people on Facebook as a self-selecting online questionnaire. It therefore targeted precisely the kind of people most likely to already have strong concerns about anti-Semitism; Jews that had sought out the CAA online, that knew about its Facebook group and were most likely to express anxieties when they came across the survey.

Then there's its deliberately leading questions and its assumptions biased in a way that bring about the very fears fear it was designed to gauge. One particular question – "Do you think that media bias against Israel fuels persecution of Jews in Britain" – assumes the existence of a "media bias" – and encourages people to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

The inclusion of Israel in a survey on anti-Semitism is particularly revealing. I'm a Jew and I have taken part in protests against the actions of the Israeli state. The CAA, which positions itself as an anti-racist campaign group seems to have its own very specific political agenda. Last year the group invited Douglas Murray, a man who described the summer's pro-Gaza rallies – which were largely to do with innocent Palestinians not getting bombed to pieces – as "a disgusting anti-Semitic spectacle," to speak at a rally in London. Their director of communications, Jonathan Sacerdoti, is a former director of public affairs at the Zionist Federation. The group also recently met the home secretary, police and crown prosecution survey to discuss adopting a definition of anti-semitism which includes criticism of Israel and "taking enforcement actions" against demonstrations that "become threatening", whatever that means.

The CAA survey was bolstered by further research by YouGov, which as Anshel Pfeffer points out in Haaretz – the liberal Israeli broadsheet – has its own problems. 3,411 members of the British public – so not just British Jews – were asked whether they agreed with statements that are meant to be anti-Semitic. Some of them – "in business, Jews are not as honest as most people" – clearly are. But others are more contestable. For instance the statement, "Jews talk about the Holocaust too much in order to get sympathy", would not be seen as anti-Semitic by, say, American-Jewish academic Norman Finkelstein. In his book, Beyond Chitzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, he argues that anti-semitism – and the Holocaust – are routinely used as an excuse for the injustices inflicted on Palestinians.

Thankfully, mainstream Jewish organisations seem keen to distance themselves from both surveys. The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies, the chief representative bodies of British Jewry have, this afternoon, criticised its "methodological flaws".

There is still, of course, reason to worry about anti-Semitism. The results of the CAA survey may not represent the majority of the Jewish community but they do certainly represent the voices of some. And that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Many of today's anxieties seem to stem from this summer where outrage at Israel's war on Gaza affected Jewish communities around the world.

In the UK, the Community Security Trust, putative "guardians" of British Jewry, reported 250 anti-semitic incidents in July alone – when Israel was attacking Gaza once more – a huge average increase for the month. At a cemetery in Rochdale, vandals smashed through Jewish gravestones and in Surrey, Kingston and Surbiton an A4 note with the words "Child Murderers" was stuck to the front door of synagogues.

I experienced some of this myself. Alongside tens of thousands of well-meaning demonstrators taking to the streets of London to protest Israeli aggression, were people engaging in deliberate anti-Semitism. I saw devils horns strapped onto Netanyahu's head, Stars of David (a symbol of Jewish identity) dripping with blood and all kinds of causal equivalences drawn between the Nazis and the Jewish state.

These things are disturbing and need to be challenged as much as possible by anti-racists. But they shouldn't be exaggerated either. Nobody is expecting a mass exodus of British Jews who have lived here uninterrupted since the 17th century. The community may not be central to global Jewry but it's an extremely well established and well integrated group, fully participant in all forms of mainstream social and cultural life. There is no state-sponsored incitement, no media hysteria, and no limitations on what Jews can do in their public and private lives. From my experiences, albeit anecdotal, most Jews feel an extremely strong connection as Jews to where they live.

More methodologically sound polls seem to bear this out. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center last year found that 83 percent of British citizens hold "favourable" views towards Jews. It's not 100 percent but it's a long way away from the alarmist 45 percent figure for people agreeing with anti-semitic statements.

Another bit of work by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, an organisation with more experience than the CAA in statistics, concluded that, "there is evidence to indicate that most British Jews feel fully integrated into British society, and that discrimination against Jews is largely a thing of the past."

It wasn't always like this of course. There was a time during the 1930s and 40s, where racism was an unavoidable part of British Jewish life. The CAA's research attempts to draw connections between that period and today. 53 percent responded that contemporary anti-Semitism echoes that period in our history. But that comparison is simply ludicrous. Back then, black-shirted fascists could be heard trudging through Dalston chanting "The Yids, the Yids. We gotta get rid of the Yids". Words like Perish Judah were chalked onto the walls of East London. Swastikas were drawn onto synagogues from Bethnal Green to Burnt Oak. The British far-right still exists – but the target of its racism has moved on from Jews to other immigrant groups.

Again, that's not to say anti-Semitism doesn't exist in the UK. It does and it probably always will. Last weeks attack on a Kosher market in France, was a reminder that anti-Semitism in Europe has not gone away either. In 2014, 5,000 Jews emigrated to Israel from France, the largest exodus in over four decades .

But the message should be clear: Jews have a future in Britain, they have a future in Europe and they have a future all over the world. Netanyahu, far-right bigots, and those happy to promote poorly designed surveys – may not like or accept it, but the Jewish Diaspora isn't going anywhere.