British Jews are fleeing Britain – or are they?
JVL Introduction
On Monday the BBC Panorama programme asked “Why British Jews are Afraid?” and suggested that up to 25% are seriously thinking of emigrating to Israel in the wake of the attacks that have taken place. Is this really the case?
Antisemitism needs to stop but there needs to be more examination about why antisemitism increases when Israel is bombing Gaza.
This article examines the facts about British Jews emigrating to Israel and concludes that there has been a marginal increase from a very small percentage, but this is not what viewers would have discovered from that programme, which also omitted the fact that almost as many Jewish Israelis have settled in the UK as British Jews have left to live in Israel – and that is not fully taking into account the numbers who are leaving Israel in the wake of the war on Gaza and especially the war on Iran.
Nothing excuses antisemitism or any form of racism or discrimination but the media seems to be willing to continue to whip up fear amongst Jews, which is a wicked thing to do when almost all Jews in Britain suffered, or have recent ancestors who suffered, persecution. To end antisemitism, we are far better off working alongside others who face prejudice and discrimination to fight it together and that we can all feel secure and that we belong.
LL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Tue 21 Apr 2026. Read the original here.
Are Rising Levels of Antisemitism Triggering an 'Exodus' of British Jews to Israel?
A new report published in London casts doubts on such claims but notes that a spate of recent attacks is ‘making questions of belonging, security and long-term viability notably more salient than before’
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But OF COURSE more Israelis are immigrating to the UK — this started within days of October 2023, as I can attest in North London — rather than British Jews emigrating to one of the most dangerous countries in the world, where their children would be compulsorily drafted into the military. The community isn’t mad, thought its leaders seem determined to drive people that way.
As a Spaniard born under Franco’s regime well into my teens, I can see the need to separate Jews from Israel’s actions.
In the same way that the average Spaniard wasn’t responsible for Franco’s regime penchant to tramp all over human rights, the same applies to all Jews in relation to Israel.
It would have been wrong for people in Britain denouncing Franco’s regime to have targeted for attack the Spanish School or the Spanish Chaplaincy in London.
By the same token, there is not justification for attacks on synagogues, Jewish business, or institutions.
These attacks are antisemitic and need to be call for what they are, defending Palestinian rights is not justification for attacking British Jews.
I agree with you, Maria, but am wondering whether anything more could be done to help more young Israelis resist indoctrination before they or those they love have made serious mistakes they can’t undo later in life?
Would term-long residential scholarships abroad exploring the topics of concern to the individual learner (on similar models to the Churchill and Woodbrooke programmes) help these students become the people they want to be? And arm them against becoming the people their later selves wouldn’t want them to be? And help them counter the racist assumptions and limits within Israeli society?
We all know how hard it is for any free-thinker to resist peer pressure to conform. Also, that many of us only gradually develop an understanding of our own independent values and views – and getting there can be quite a struggle.
Israel’s education system and governance build and sustain “group think” along ethnic lines in much the same way as Apartheid South Africa did. Mass conscription of both sexes in the IDF extends the indoctrination process from the school leaving stage into young adulthood. Then later career prospects depend partly on whether the individual’s behaviour was acceptable to his / her IDF officers. The pressures on young Israelis to become ethnocentric, “Greater Israel” clones seem so intense over so many years it’s surprising even a few of them resist these.
There was a course at City university called the Olive Tree Programme until 2020 where Jewish Israelis and Palestinians could study together. As Linda says, this experience could involve painful readjustments to the Israeli students’ worldviews but knowledge was raised and co-operation was achieved. The Programme’s founder Rosemary Hollis died in 2020 and her work came to an end. Could someone out there start it again?