by 
Jewish
history
has
long
been
defined
by
migratory
movements
away
from
trouble
and
towards
safer
places.
Over
the
past
half
millennia,
the
safest
harbours
for
‘the
world’s
foster
children’,
as
David
Mamet
put
it,
have
generally
been
English-speaking
countries,
first
Britain,
then
especially
the
US,
Canada
and
Australia.
This
is
increasingly
no
longer
the
case.
The
British
Jewish
community
is
being
battered
by
a
rising
tide
of
anti-Israel
and
anti-Jewish
agitation
from
both
the
left
and
segments
of
the
UK’s
much
larger
Muslim
population.
In
Australia,
Jewish
childcare
centres
and
an
MP’s
office
have
been
attacked.
Even
the
United
States
and
Canada,
where
over
70
per
cent
of
the
Jewish
diaspora
resides,
are
showing
signs
of
increased
anti-Zionist
and
openly
anti-Semitic
sentiment.
Indeed,
in
the
US,
anti-Semitic
hate
crimes
now
dwarf
hate
crimes
against
Muslims,
blacks
or
Asians.
No
wonder
many
Jews
are
thinking
of
departing
for
safer
pastures
new.
The
potential
decline
in
the
Jewish
Anglosphere
has
been
presaged
by
a
more
precipitous
fall
in
Europe
and
throughout
Asia.
The
Jewish
population
in
Europe
stood
at
3.5million
in
1950,
after
the
Holocaust.
Today
it
has
fallen
to
well
under
1.5million.
France
is
home
to
the
world’s
third-largest
Jewish
community,
but
it’s
shrinking.
Since
2000,
nearly
50,000
Jews
have
left
France,
mostly
for
Israel.
Even
more
shocking
has
been
the
virtual
annihilation
of
Jews
in
Islamic
countries
–
one
million
strong
until
the
1960s,
there
are
fewer
than
15,000
Jews
living
in
these
places
today.
Anti-Semitism,
driven
by
attacks
from
Islamists
and
their
leftist
allies,
has
been
a
prime
driver
of
this
decline.
A
survey
found
that
barely
13
per
cent
of
anti-Semitic
attacks
in
Europe
were
traceable
to
right-wingers.
To
be
sure,
there’s
cause
to
worry
about
some
right-wing
anti-Semities
within
the
ranks
of
Austria’s
Freedom
Party
(founded
by
former
SS
officers),
the
AfD
in
Germany
and
Jobbik
in
Hungary.
But
right
now,
the
immediate
danger
lies
elsewhere.
Until
recently,
the
Anglosphere
provided
a
bulwark
against
anti-Semitism.
As
Barbara
W
Tuchman
explains
in
Bible
and
Sword,
Jews
have
long
had
ties
to
Britain,
reaching
back
to
before
Roman
times.
In
1290,
Edward
I
did
announce
the
expulsion
of
Jews,
but
many
returned
largely
at
the
behest
of
Oliver
Cromwell
in
the
17th
century.
Cromwell’s
Roundheads
drew
a
lot
of
their
inspiration
from
the
Old
Testament.
Of
course,
at
the
same
time,
Britain’s
Jews
have
suffered
considerable
discrimination
over
the
past
half
millenia,
and
were
unable
to
vote
in
parliament
until
1858.
In
the
late-19th
century,
Britain’s
Jewish
population
swelled
thanks
to
migration
from
Russia-dominated
regions
in
Europe’s
east,
notably
Poland.
Many
helped
shape
the
British
left,
and
the
Labour
Party,
while
others
went
off
to
participate
in
Britain’s
robust
economy,
including
as
migrants
to
the
colonies,
notably
South
Africa,
Australia
and
Canada.
But
over
the
past
half
century,
the
Jewish
population
in
Britain
has
declined.
Today,
with
central
London
often
resounding
to
the
sound
of
pro-Hamas
demonstrations,
a
vibrant
centre
of
Jewish
life
has
been
turned
into
a
no-go
zone.
As
secular
Jews
migrate
or
intermarry,
one
study
predicts
that
England’s
Jewish
community
will
largely
be
Orthodox
by
the
century’s
close.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece
at
Spiked.
Joel
Kotkin
is
the
author
of
The
Coming
of
Neo-Feudalism:
A
Warning
to
the
Global
Middle
Class.
He
is
the
Roger
Hobbs
Presidential
Fellow
in
Urban
Futures
at
Chapman
University
and
and
directs
the
Center
for
Demographics
and
Policy
there.
He
is
Senior
Research
Fellow
at
the
Civitas
Institute
at
the
University
of
Texas
in
Austin.
Learn
more
at
joelkotkin.com
and
follow
him
on
Twitter
@joelkotkin.
Photo:
D.
Berkowitz
via
Wikimedia
under
under
CC
2.0
License.
Go to Source
Author: Joel Kotkin
