The experience of being a Jew in Britain over the past two years has been one of trapdoors of depravity. You fall through one on to what you think is firm ground, only to discover that there is always further to fall. Yesterday was a prime example.
The terror attack on a Manchester synagogue was, of course, the sort of shock that changes things forever. This was something that all in the community had feared, yet it had thankfully failed to materialise. In France, yes, there had been attacks like this on many occasions. The attack on Charlie Hebdo, the defenestration of elderly Jews in Paris and Lyon, the anti-Semitic rape last year of a 12-year-old girl. But in Britain, nothing of that nature.
Well, so much for that. Today, it emerged that the community security guards had prevented the attacker from entering the Heaton Park synagogue, at huge personal cost, with one killed and the other seriously injured. Their everyday heroism – as is common with such atrocities – provided a shining light in the darkness that descended at the hands of Jihad al-Shamie.
Yes, nothing will ever be the same for Jews in Britain, if indeed they remain here. As it turned out, however, the attack itself was only the first trapdoor of the depravity.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member