A week in England is like any other since October 7, 2023.
As with many Jews around the world, those who regularly attend prayer services and those to whom the idea of synagogue attendance is a strange one, we meet in our temples in great numbers to mark the holiest day of the year.
They can choose between Haredi, Orthodox, liberal, reform, masorti, or none of the above as places to pray.
There are also differing degrees of security on offer to guard against Jew hatred. Privately contracted security firms, the Jewish Charity CST, as well as brave and willing community members, are prepared to put their lives on the line. What they might lack in physical prowess, they make up for in determination to keep everyone safe.
The congregation gathered in Manchester Heaton Park synagogue, when the pogrom of the 2nd October began, culminating in two dead congregants killed inevitably by an assailant with the name Jihad al-Shamie.
Labour government's hypocrisy towards British Jewry
The British political parties, which week in week out have denigrated Israel, sensed a problem of hypocrisy. Having permitted weekly hate marches by pro-Palestinians, they still turned up to use the empty rhetoric of “we feel your pain,” chief amongst them, the prime minister, who boasts of having a Jewish wife when he needs to and the former foreign secretary David Lammy who had led the charge in granting statehood to the non existent state of “Palestine” as a reward for Hamas.
Those in attendance heckled Lammy. His attendance was shameful. He was told to go to Palestine.
In contrast to the hypocrisy of the Labour government's leadership was what happened at Manchester United. There, before the game against Sunderland at Old Trafford, a minute’s silence was called for to mark the murder of the two shul congregants, and remarkably, the crowd complied. You could hear a pin drop. Even national anthems at football matches have the words: ‘G-d save our Queen (or King)” replaced by, "G-d save our Team.” But as the players looked down at their boots in studded respect, the stadium stood in quiet contemplation.
The week moved forward to Shabbat and October 4, when, just as they had done weekly, the pro-Palestine marchers gathered to shout support for Hamas and Palestine. Any supporters of Israel were called evil and asked to leave. A demonstrator, as ignorant as she was malevolent, told one of them that Israel had killed 680,000 Palestinians.
If you are going to lie, lie big.
Finally, on Sunday, October 5, 2025, thousands came to Trafalgar Square to remember those who died on the 7th of October, as well as marking the urgency that still requires the release of the hostages. The gathering was quiet and dignified. Keynote speakers were three survivors of October 7, and the UK's Chief Rabbi. I stayed quiet, that is, until the end when we sang “Gd save the King” and “Hatikva” and danced. Yes, danced in peace and hope.
How often was Palestine blamed for Israel’s pain? Not once. Blame for the moment is irrelevant. We just want them home
As with so many Jews, my life, along with my wife’s, has changed radically in the last two years. We have been appalled by the universe that has ignored the plight of Israel as it tries to make it the world’s leading pariah state. So many of my professional friends from Bench and Bar have failed to reach out, no doubt claiming they have forgotten that we have a Jewish life and one that takes place in Zichron Ya'akov.
Those friendships have no way back.
We too have no way back, our determination to make aliyah within the next months could not be stronger.
Nigel Lithman is a retired criminal Judge and author. He lives between London and Zichron Ya'akov.