Everyday Hate

 
nhy, after all this time, are we still talking about antisemitism? Anti-Jewish hatred is supposed to have disappeared with the Dark Ages. Medieval myths about Jews are for the history books, racism is abhorred and we all say: 'never again'. Yet today anti-Jewish hate crime is rising, Jewish blood is spilt in Europe once more and arguments over antisemitism, whether in politics or literature, theatre or sport, are increasingly hard to avoid. All this, when Jews make up less than half a per cent of the British population and most people say they bear no ill will towards Jewish people. What is going on? It would be tempting to put this all down to a handful of extremists, but today you can find antisemitism everywhere. At a time of economic, political and social turmoil, fuelled by conspiracy theories on your smartphone and war in the Middle East, antisemitism is back.