A shadow has fallen over British Jewry. Recent surveys paint a stark picture: only one-third of British Jews believe they have a future in the United Kingdom, while half have contemplated leaving due to rising antisemitism. It’s not hard to understand why. The numbers are staggering – nearly 2,000 antisemitic incidents in just six months of 2024, the highest ever recorded. In cities across Britain, Jews are increasingly hiding their identity, with 58% concealing their Judaism in public spaces. The venerable Jewish community of Great Britain, which has contributed so much to British society for centuries, now finds itself asking: Is there still a place for us here?
This is painful news, but there may be a deeper and more positive way to view this. The Hebrew Bible tells us repeatedly that God works in mysterious ways, often using seemingly tragic circumstances to fulfill His promises. As the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed:
One of Judaism’s most profound thinkers of the modern era, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843-1926), offered a remarkable perspective on Jewish exile and redemption. In his masterwork Meshech Chochmah, he describes how divine providence has guided Jewish history through the centuries: “For the thousands of years that swept over the diminutive nation, so weak and helpless, it was the way of divine providence that they would rest for close to a hundred or two hundred years. Afterwards, a storm wind would emerge and give rise to many waves; it would destroy, decimate, wear them out, demolish, and sweep away without mercy. The Jews would flee to a distant place and there they would reunite into a nation.”
He continues with profound insight: “They would grow, rise up, their wisdom would lead them to success, until they would forget they were strangers in a strange land. They would think this is the place from which they originated, and lose hope for Hashem’s spiritual salvation at the appointed time. There, an even stronger storm wind would come and it would remind them with a raging sound and an earthquake: ‘You are a Jew. Who made you into a man? Go for yourself to a land you do not know.'” (Meshech Chochmah, Leviticus 26:44)
The way forward is clear in Jewish tradition: Jews should return to Israel willingly, with pride and dignity, walking tall toward their ancestral homeland in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. But when we become too comfortable in exile, when we begin to see foreign capitals as our permanent home, divine providence intervenes. The traditional Jewish grace after meals includes a poignant prayer that captures this duality: “May the Compassionate One break the yoke of oppression from our necks and guide us, standing tall and erect, to our Land!”
We must never celebrate antisemitism or view it as good – it remains a moral stain on any society where it appears. The fact that nearly 90% of British Jews feel their universities won’t protect Jewish students, or that 84% believe authorities aren’t doing enough to combat antisemitism, represents a tragic failure of British society.
Yet through the lens of Jewish tradition, we can perhaps see these troubling events as part of a larger divine plan. Rabbi Meir Simcha warns that when the Jewish people “abandon religious study and study foreign languages; they will think that Berlin is Jerusalem,” then “a storm wind will come and a tempest will uproot the nation from its main root.” Today’s events, while painful, may be the divine storm pushing us toward our ultimate destiny.
The message is both sobering and hopeful: We can choose to return home to Israel willingly, with dignity and pride, or we may find ourselves driven there by the winds of antisemitism. But either way, redemption is unfolding before our eyes. God is pressing His people forward, and Israel grows stronger with each passing day. When thousands more Jews return home, whether by choice or circumstance, the Jewish state will become stronger still, bringing us ever closer to the final redemption and the day when the entire world—Great Britain included—will know God.
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