Dinah Winch

I grew up in this community and I have a few thoughts I want to share. A short thread.

"We shall not be moved." - President @PhilR_R on the arson attack in Golders Green this morning.

Here's my @JewishChron column, 'The Hatzola attack and the normalisation of antisemitism in Britain' thejc.com/opinion/the-ha… My nephew got married yesterday. With the hindsight of last night’s Golders Green attack, it feels like a bittersweet occasion – although the simcha itself was, of course, entirely sweet. But I know that the conversations I had yesterday were the same that the rest of us have every time we gather: is it still safe for us here? It’s a damning commentary on where we now are as a nation that such a thought should even occur to us. But it’s occurring with ever greater frequency as antisemitism becomes increasingly normalised, Jew hate is increasingly tolerated and the politicians with the power to affect things content themselves with platitudes about antisemitism having no place on our streets, when the evidence is that it has a very welcome place on the streets – and some of those politicians are the worst facilitators of it. We do not know the full details behind the attack on the Hatzola Northwest ambulances, parked outside a synagogue, but the Iranian-associated terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya has already said it was behind the arson – the same organisation which claimed responsibility for similar attacks in Liege, Rotterdam and Amsterdam over the past fortnight. Already the loons have started their conspiracy theories. One former British ambassador has written, “Could they make the false flag any more obvious?” and there have been any number of social media posts decrying the very existence of Hatzola, on the basis that it shows how Jews look after only themselves with our own fleet of ambulances. Like all antisemitic assertions, this demonstrates only the stupidity and malignity of those making it: Hatzola is run by Jewish volunteers and funded by the Jewish community, but is – as JC readers will be well aware – there for the entire community, Jews and gentiles alike. And the fact that four of its ambulances have been destroyed means that waiting times across north west London will now suffer – for everyone. If Iran is the most likely culprit, it is operating in the climate of rising Jew hate in which we are now living and which is proving so – to put it mildly – destabilising for our community. We are not living through 1930s Germany. But that should not be the only measure of concern. Living through a repeat of the Nazi era is not the only definition of an existential threat to our way of life and security. The evidence may be anecdotal, but I know that many of you reading this will have had and will continue to have the conversation I referred to above: whether it is safe for us to stay here. Increasingly it feels as if we are beginning to return to the times of our ancestors, where the Jews were turned on and scapegoated. I have long argued that the period after Second World War until around the turn of the century, in which antisemitism was present but was shunned and frowned on in polite circles, and when it was not an issue that was of real concern to Jews – the period in which I lived the first 40 or so years of my life, for example – was an aberration. But because the majority of Jews have grown up in that period, it was our norm. What is now happening, I believe, is a sort of reversion to the mean: for centuries open Jew hate and antisemitic attacks were the norm, and that is what we are now returning to. It is only because so many of have grown up in the aberration of the post-war period, that we are so shocked by what is now returning. Whoever is responsible for last night’s attack, that, surely, is the real context.

Don't tell us that you don't deliver mail in batches @RoyalMail. No post all week we've been waiting for a new bank card which was due Wednesday at the latest & now a pile of 8 letters & packages?!

If your country has freedom of religion, but members of one religion need to pay millions on security just to safely gather, then your country does not have freedom of religion.

@theguardianfeed What an appalling article, published at the end of a week of attacks on Jews. This is why I no longer buy the Guardian.

A corner of north London where food has become a battleground in the Israel-Gaza war | Jonathan Liew theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

There is no doubt letters are coming in batches @RoyalMail. We get nothing for a week or more and then a pile all at once. This is very much the established pattern. It's not acceptable.

@nicolelampert Grotesque.

The ill-equipped chair of the Southbank Centre says he’s refusing to support any Iranians who dare to have Zionist leanings. He talks about the ‘bigger picture’ without understanding that Israel is at war with Iran and its terrorist proxies, not Palestinian civilians who are victims of the Islamic State as are the people of Iran.

The situation in Iran has now gone into unprecedented territory. As a Bahá’í myself. the memories of parents of Bahá’í friends & family being taken away, shot and dumped into a ditch, are still vivid. Just for having beliefs that were different from the ruling radical Islamic clerics in charge. Regime officials charging families of the dead exorbitant amounts to release the bodies - with invoices that included money charged for the bullets used to kill their loved ones - was par for the course. The regime is now doing the same to their own citizens - of all backgrounds and beliefs. They do this every time the people rise up. That’s how power is maintained. When you hear “this time it’s different” you may ask what has happened to the people of Iran where they feel they have nothing to lose now? What has happened that they feel that it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees? The answer to that question is why I don’t see any let up in the people taking the streets in Iran for the 14th night in a row. Despite what the BBC article below is (we think correctly) reporting. “BBC Persian has verified that 70 bodies were brought to Poursina Hospital in Rasht city on Friday night. The morgue there was at full capacity, so the bodies were taken away. The authorities asked the relatives of the dead for 7 billion rials (£5,222; $7,000) to release them for burial, a hospital source said.” #IranianRevolution2026 bbc.com/news/articles/…

It's appalling that Danny is getting gleeful messages threatening him with the same fate as those who died in the Holocaust. It's even more appalling that X is permitting this. This isn't free speech, it's targeted hatred of Jews. Ban it, @elonmusk.

Letter posted through our letter box. We live in RoCHester and there is one number and one letter in our postcode the same as this postcode. House number is the same & there is a similarity in the street names. How many machines/hands did this go through @RoyalMail?

Lovely to see the listing increased to Grade II* by Historic England and the DCMS for this amazing windmill in Margate. Draper's Windmill was constructed in about 1843, by John Holman, millwright of Canterbury.🧵 📷Emily Greenaway

What has happened to @BBCNewsnight Richard Bacon & Alex Phillips on the Middle East & Trump?

Nova by Mina Kupferman, displayed in the exhibition Witness @JW3London earlier this year #7October

There are many things you can do to show your support to the Jewish community, one of the most practical is to donate Online to the CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community share.google/z0grmKd9dRTPyZ…

@MissLauraMarcus Devastated

I wonder how most Brits feel when they hear Jews say they no longer feel safe in the UK?

Why does a bag of potatoes require a plastic tray @sainsburys ?

The Ravel @grosvenorpiano was also wonderful & we enjoyed the magnificent Prokoviev encore!

And more from @HMD_UK hmd.org.uk/resource/the-b… Disappointing that @bbcproms programmed this important work at a time when observant Jewish people wouldn't be able to attend.

Some good notes on the history of the work. The Nazis shot 34,000 Jews over 2 nights & threw them into the Babyn Yar ravine, outside Kiev in 1941. markwigglesworth.com/notes/mhttps:/…

Incredibly moving Shostakovich Symphony no.13 (Babi Yar) @bbcproms @RoyalAlbertHall last night. Interesting interval discussion here incls a few secs of Shostakovich himself on piano playing his songs from Jewish Folk Poetry & the poet reciting Babi Yar. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…