Updated: “Britain’s Synagogues Have Never Been Fuller,”

An article with this title was previously posted by mistake. I wanted to emphasize that Jewish ethnocentrism increases dramatically when there is perceived danger to Jews, and to Israel first and foremost, but also in the diaspora in the West because of all the pro-Palestinian protests and even attacks on Jews during the protests and on college campuses. Ethnocentrism is what evolutionary psychologists term a “facultative adaptation,” that is, an adaptation that is triggered or exacerbated by particular environmental events, and in the case of ethnocentrism, perceived threat against the group. (Similarly, the fear system can trigger fight or flight in response to an imminent threat, such as an impending criminal assault or a snake.) In fact, given all the theorizing that Israel must have known about the Hamas plan in advance, it is even possible that one motive was to unite Jews in Israel and around the world and make them more conscious of being Jewish, especially in the context of increasing division within the Jewish community both in Israel and the diaspora over Netanyahu’s explicitly racist government and its attempt to have the Knesset be able to override Supreme Court decisions. There can be little doubt that the Israel-Hamas war has served to unify Jews around the world.

As expected, there has been a huge uptick in donations to pro-Israel causes since the October 7 war began. The main point of my intended post was to emphasize the article excerpted below from The Spectator because it corroborates my previous blog post “The Israel-Gaza War and Jewish Identity.” But I begin with a quote from my previous blog post:

The war in Israel-Gaza is likely to increase Jewish identification and commitment. In my battles with Nathan Cofnas he claims American Jews are not particularly ethnocentric based on intermarriage statistics. This is wrong for a number of reasons, but at times like this, Jewish consciousness and identity will surely rise. From the revision of CofC:

Jewish identity may emerge among Jews without a conscious Jewish identity as a result of a perceived threat to Jews, as during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war or the rise of National Socialism. Jewish identification is a complex area where surface declarations may be deceptive. Jews may not consciously know how strongly they identify with Judaism. Silberman (1985, 184), for example, notes that around the time of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, many Jews could identify with the statement of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that “I had not known how Jewish I was” (in Silberman 1985, 184; italics in text). Silberman comments: “This was the response, not of some newcomer to Judaism or casual devotee but of the man whom many, myself included, consider the greatest Jewish spiritual leader of our time.” Many others made the same surprising discovery about themselves: Arthur Hertzberg (1979, 210) wrote, “The immediate reaction of American Jewry to the crisis was far more intense and widespread than anyone could have foreseen. Many Jews would never have believed that grave danger to Israel could dominate their thoughts and emotions to the exclusion of everything else.”
The point is that the Jewish identity of even a highly assimilated Jew, and even one who has subjectively rejected a Jewish identity, may surface at times of crisis to the group or when Jewish identification conflicts with any other identity that a Jew might have, including identification as a political radical.
As a result, assertions regarding Jewish identification that fail to take account of perceived threats to Judaism may seriously underestimate the extent of Jewish commitment. Surface declarations of a lack of Jewish identity may be highly misleading. Consider the following comment on Heinrich Heine, who was baptized but remained strongly identified as a Jew: “Whenever Jews were threatened—whether in Hamburg during the Hep-Hep riots [in 1819 in Germany] or in Damascus at the time of the ritual murder accusation [1840] —Heine at once felt solidarity with his people” (Prawer 1983, 762).

This recent article reinforces the point:

Our lives have changed forever. We have had to change not just the way we think of Israel but how we think of Britain. The past month has exposed an ugly underside. We once thought we lived in a tolerant society. Now we are asking: ‘Can we safely share our Jewishness here?’, and ‘do we belong?’

As Jews we are familiar with tragedy, threat and betrayal. ‘Always make sure you have your passport in date’, my mother used to tell me. Fortunately, today we are still very far from escape. But the recent rise in anti-Semitism makes us feel like we have moved another step closer.

In the darkest times, however, is when the embers of the Jewish spirit burn brightest. Amidst the tragic loss of life and bloodshed, there are revolutions starting. There is a revolution of Jewish identity and unity.

Although security threats are at their highest, the synagogues have never been fuller. ‘We’ve not seen our synagogue this full since the Pittsburg shooting’, noticed a friend, with a sad laugh. Charities distribute thousands of shabbat candles every Friday, WhatsApp groups encourage psalms to be recited around the clock and hundreds of women gather each week to bake ceremonial challa bread and pray. One local barber, for the first time ever, vowed to close his shop on Shabbat as a sign of solidarity. Members of the community vow to support his business in return.

‘I have never felt my Jewishness the way I do right now’, said a lady, at the kosher butcher, buying chicken soup: ‘Ironically just when we’re under attack.’ Another ex-colleague reached out to me. She had never embraced her Jewish heritage before but now she feels she has to ‘pick a side’. She feels the pain of being vilified and misunderstood but feels that it is worth it. …

Pressure builds daily as Israel loses global sympathy and the bloody conflict unfolds. Friends in Israel feel supported there and weirdly they feel safer, even when they run into their bomb shelters. Their sense of connection makes them feel alive. The Jewish community’s unity now feels even stronger in contrast to the splintered in-fighting about Israel’s judicial reform that was rampant prior to the attack. This month, these differences have been put on hold. Faith and togetherness are our community’s protection against threat and we have to cling to them with all our might.[1]


[1] Chana Hughes, “Britain’s Synagogues Have Never Been Fuller,” The Spectator (November 11 2023). https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britains-synagogues-have-never-been-fuller/

9 replies
  1. Ex Eire
    Ex Eire says:

    a google search
    “Religion. There are around 454 synagogues in the country, and it is estimated that 56.3% of all households across the UK with at least one Jew living within them held synagogue membership in 2016.”

  2. Ex eire
    Ex eire says:

    https://bod.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Synagogue-membership-in-the-United-Kingdom-in-2016.pdf

    In 2016, 79,597 Jewish households across the United Kingdom held synagogue membership.
    • There were 454 synagogues in operation across the United Kingdom in 2016, the highest number in recorded history.
    • Household synagogue membership figures have declined by 20% since 1990, the equivalent of 20,166 households, and by 4% since 2010, the equivalent of 3,366 households.
    • An estimated 56.3% of all households across the UK with at least one
    Jew living within them held synagogue membership in 2016, although the proportions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were significantly lower.
    • The vast majority (96%) of synagogue members in the UK live in England, and Jews living in England are much more likely to belong to a synagogue than those living in other parts of the UK.
    • The largest denominational group in 2016 was ‘Central Orthodox’ (comprising synagogues affiliated to the United Synagogue or the Federation of Synagogues, as well as independent modern Orthodox synagogues around the country), which held 53% of all household synagogue memberships.
    • The remaining synagogue memberships are held by other denominations: Reform (19%); Strictly Orthodox (13%); Liberal (8%); Masorti (3%); and Sephardi (3%).
    • The most significant changes in synagogue membership since 1990 can be seen in Central Orthodoxy, which has experienced a 37% decline over the period, and in Strict Orthodoxy, which has experienced a 139% increase.
    • These trends have continued since the last synagogue membership report was published in 2010. The Central Orthodox share has declined by 8% over the past six years, whilst the Strictly Orthodox share has grown by 18%.
    • Three quarters of all synagogues in the UK are situated in Greater London (64%) and the adjacent areas of South Hertfordshire and South-West Essex (10%). 11% of all synagogues in the UK are in Greater Manchester; 15% are located across other parts of the country.
    • Half of all synagogue members in the UK belong to synagogues located in just five areas: Barnet, Westminster, Hertsmere, Redbridge and Stamford Hill.

  3. Alan
    Alan says:

    Prof.Kevin and his lifetime of works shines… .his munificent article is in its entirety perhaps a commentary on the saturnine plastic slip cover potemkin village actual nature of the tribe.. ..Prof.Kevin s article, … is a very clear view from 10 thousand feet up
    highlighting
    the dubious,erratic, inconsistent unstable
    utterly dark jewish collective subconscious- rooted in wilhelm reich,sigmund-the homosexual jew-freud..the plagiarist einstein who wished he was Nikola Tesla…..moses maimonidees.idiotic .sabbatai levi,tsvi…the JEW aleister crowley……menachem mendle schneerson
    …bernie madoff..sam.b.fried..jon pollard.lyndon.b.johnson,kissinger,.no thanks! …but yeah……prof.Kevin s endearing article exposes .the duplicitous jewish “.false self serving tribal identarianism that passes under the radar for humanism.” …. quasi -humanism,counterfeit humanism,..bizarre doctrines,pseudo geneologies…a flag that reveals the 666….a mask for more heartless jewish communism….at the end of the day …there never seems to be enough time to look into all jewish untoward inverted wrong headed ,out of kilter , jewish traditions ….so much dreadful jewish occultic wildly irrational jewish “literature”- and mutually inconclusive idiotic preternatural jew practices .. some ask about the origin of their..little satan -hats so much of pre mosaic judiasm is egyptian,…esp.circumcision…their
    -golden sacramental stupidification….those little satan hats,so ill fitted…..just arent elegant or ideal –are they.. .not even francis .the correctly hated bergoglio, argentinian jew – alledged pedophile-child murderer, such a clown, doesnt looks comfy. in his pontiff -little jew- hat…(no offense to our pre -vat.2 friends,)…. but ultimate jew reality…is so much satanically occult jewish hermaphroditic neurotic
    garbage- their unsettling wierd unnatural world. root..literatures…. .look it up -its too late for the jews to lie about ..their mountains of satanic tractates, talmudic sadistic bolshevistic trash..the zohar. ..adam cadmon– the notorious horrifying .toledoth yeshu, …kabala,lillith,,saturnalia,mishnah.the tanya..the shulcan aruch,.and the post frankfurt school perverse marxist jew beliefs…..how d yuh like hook nosed hateful max horkenheimer for a next door neighbor….!….. but sure..the religio-fascist …theofacist golden calf baphomet jews can spoil their own ,-as long as they rigidly conform- but watch out! conform or die with the tribe…” chasidic rabbis raping their own congregation kids in brooklyn- they dont condone using non jewish police… they”handle these issues internally”-….but then stay with us now… back to the article by prof.Kevin… is ,a revelation of the potemkin village jewish false faith…..pathetic.. identarian self cannabalizing jew…mindset..
    his article..details in part some of the old moldy but goldy duddy kravitz styled -.jewish- poor me – jewish self pity ….. what have the jews–,oh those poor jews!- done to deserve all this so called Jew-hatred?..what!?.. does murdering the entire russian royal family, all the holodomors perpetrated by soviet jews,nkvd-cheka, j and bela kuhn,,doviet jew wsrlord butcher tito–josip broz,–justify .the dreaded charge of…wait for it–Anti–Semitism?or is anti semitism a skillful bait and switch deflection from jewish superpredatorism? or well deserved anti–,jewishism?!….
    what s this now then!?… should we now cry crocodile tears …because.. JEWS are again ..paranoid and schizophrenic,red heiffer immolators– to a pathological fault.?…..after all..the jews have a false identity -they dont know who they really are– their chosenite “identity”- is
    really nothing more than.. false constructs . predicated on the classic rebellious antichrist spirit….for the tribe,, a paranoia reappears at very predictable intervals,they evince – supreme primal ..wooly mammoth or bigfooted
    arrogance…or is it..coneheaded arrogance?……oh well time will tell..because all s well that ends well -the jew question i is again ending up really horribly””. so jews are
    .immediately ..obviously hostile ,cold, non empathetic, to what they call.-.their words –goyim..shikses,schwartzahs,kushi s,shabbos goys..to all non jews,.. ..point is ..the jews so often preposes a mocking ..preening..pontificating.. leering ,sneering,
    carnally perverse,sybaritic.. superior .. ..officious.snarky..caustic woody allen pedophile -style patholigy..a self serving self justifying neurosis…..at the end of the day their “”identity–if you can call it that….like the apartheid super crime false state of isreal–is a malicious sociopathic .lousy cover for ugly delusional ingrained poorly suppressed jew race supremacy…..-Jews did their “dissent is psycholigical
    disorder trip “”back in the ussr….problem is
    .. they want it here too ..,”Does that.profile sound like mogilevich?kolomoisekey,, war criminal jew henry kissinger ..chertoff blinken lipstadt singer krystol ,nuland or pritzker ,potok,to anyone ,?.. …hilly rosenberg-radomski-clinton,the yiddish speaker feminazi lesbian jew….wheres huma the bedbug ?still in crooklyn?.with .weiner ?…. .hilly clinton…. a million dead bodies around ….obnoxious vile jewish folk…..God forbid any non jew should ever pay for these peoples political agenda s or trumpdog or speaker clown johnson or any isreal firster political whore…supporting any of the jew criminal clowns is no better than trying to burn water..makes no sense at all.. what is it with them?-… a kind of 30 pieces of silver self righteous pouting …they..just..cant..get..enough non jewish..blood.. they alone can be natiinalists,
    no one else is,in their eyes,l entitled..legitimate worthy..””……they cant wait to profiteer on bloodshed,..for the next preplanned jew war- ..they have,… that aroma…many non jews can intuit….the stench of their psychopathy..the jewish malfeasance…the sacred cow golden calf jews …are at best, anarchic rebels without a clue. misdirected by .auto destructive solipsism… are they really so unfairly persecuted ,?..arent they …”” clearly rich parasitical obese frail unheathy chabad noahide law neo turkic s… neo grecian(sorry ,wonderful greek -golden dawn friends-we know you know what we mean–) neo mongolian turkic jews..?. they reinforce ..reinculcate,. vile ancient evil s..ferociously utterly dogmatic…white hating rabbinical trash. see joshua stanton ..noel ignatiev,barbara cohen,–.we know the jews are so afriad ..-…so internally ..intensely..jealous of white folk—. .rabbis and jew monopolists,..spieling out..vomiting . arrogant self deceiving false jew pablum…..isnt it “rich”. .. bizarre pack rat rabbi s love to say sternly. as they condescend to prattle on down to non jews….-“-you cannot remain or be a Jew ,and accept the Divinity of Christ”.
    ..we see after enormous scholarship and intellectual fidelity..prof.Kevin again as expected does a masterful job illustrating a multitude of glaring jewish contradictions from a great depth and variety of psychologically revealing angles….. but consider this.. no
    offense intended,..but whatever anyone
    believe,s.fact is, a cogent
    argument could be made – that Prof.Kevin
    is doing Gods work to free multitudes from the false jewish lens….to liberate in the true meaning of the term,..to enlighten a generation of brainwashed isreal firster dupes..amazingly..,some..not enough,but disillusioned evangelicals, have woken up from “swindlers list – type jewish darkness.. ** . ..anyway..what ever really happened to the good ole usa?!.-we been jewed!..!but..yeah..-…we hear rumors though…..that isreal firster cucker tarlson the red bracelet kabalist-trust fund brat- pro jewish false mysticism company man domineering arrogant
    punk ..the snarky “” -we -dont-care -who -we-hurt –or-who-we -mislead-as-long -as -we,-makes-money-cucker tarlson,””.admits he was always filthy rich,—the face puppet for big brother jew government… did he ever suffer as much for truth ,any truth—as much as prof.Kevin?””…….we think cucker the aggressively normal conformist ,.is full of dead men s bones -,pretending,pretensing,that he ..– -is the voice of the peoples….he s no harry vox,thats for sure!…cucker ,the diametric opposite of Prof.Kevin… cucker..tarlson,like trump, is the puppet face that john mcafee tried to warn us about…cucker tarlson,good little rich jewboy,..even if he s not a “jew”.is a .. crypto jew clown …perhaps…one step away from” kill em all ben shapiro–“in actual fact..the
    face of the cia …..-controlled opposition troll ….the limited hang out clown, is he…..getting married.–. unholy matrimony– to mark steyn or chuck schmuck schumer the trisexual …is that really true?… tell us it isnt so..- one more thing…….is whats happening over in isreal -palestine “jewish lightning?.”…does jewish lightning mean getting white boys to kill and die for you ,doing your dirty work,while you jews hang out with massmurdering gayboy jewlenksky in davos or miami? or was jewish lightning supposed to signify schwab?harari ? gates?….barry obama?..mooschelle robinson? rachel.levine? josh green ,nadler, fetterman..?newsome?..greenblatt?…soros ?podesta?..in any case,we hope the new generations to come will apppreciate..and study prof.Kevin s stentorian magisterial erudite works..We see why so many intelligent folk hold Him in the highest regard.

  4. United Synagogue
    United Synagogue says:

    Jewish ethnocentrism increases dramatically when there is perceived danger to Jews

    Jewish PROPAGANDA (& hoovering of resources, support, official backing etc) increases dramatically when there is any opportunity to PORTRAY ‘danger to Jews’–especially handy when jews are on the aggressive, blasting Palestinian civilians.

  5. Some Visitor
    Some Visitor says:

    https://twitter.com/trygoodbud/status/1721369969492193364
    https://twitter.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1716156143096168657
    https://twitter.com/codeofvets/status/1707569165576679683

    https://www.amren.com/news/2023/11/the-west-should-welcome-gaza-refugees/

    The clear way to protect America is to stop funding Israel, declare Israel a terrorist entity, ally with the Arab League and Iran, and make a deal for these states to repatriate their immigrants as part of a larger peace deal.

    I am no flag expert, but combining the Israeli and American flags 100% goes against flag code. In particular it violates this section:

    (g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

    (k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

    There have been harsh penalties for desecrating the flag.

    (a)(1) Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/700
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/8

  6. A Viewer
    A Viewer says:

    The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, does not see Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a legitimate political partner for Germany. Speaking to Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (Wednesday editions), Schuster cited Erdogan’s support for the terrorist organization Hamas after the attack on Israel as a reason: “Anyone who not only denies Israel’s right to exist, but actively fights against it, cannot be a partner for German politics.”

    It is about Erdogan’s upcoming state visit, who, as we all know, represents a not insignificant proportion of civic occupants of a foreign-controlled construct that illegitimately calls itself “Germany”. One thing is completely out of question: what “policy” the so-called government of so-called Germany pursues (or refrains from pursuing) is not determined by its so-called “elected representatives”, but solely and exclusively by the Central Council of Jews (in personification of Schuster).

  7. Pierre de Craon
    Pierre de Craon says:

    Our lives have changed forever. … As Jews we are familiar with tragedy, threat and betrayal. … In the darkest times, however, is when the embers of the Jewish spirit burn brightest. … “I have never felt my Jewishness the way I do right now,” said a lady, at the kosher butcher, buying chicken soup.

    If you notice that, here, sentimentality and grandiosity collide with self-parody, you are an anti-Semite.

    … hundreds of women gather each week to bake ceremonial challa bread and pray. One local barber, for the first time ever, vowed to close his shop on Shabbat as a sign of solidarity. Members of the community vow to support his business in return.

    If you notice that, here, as usual, stuffing your face and making money are prioritized, you are an anti-Semite.

    Another ex-colleague … feels the pain of being vilified and misunderstood but feels that it is worth it. … Pressure builds daily as Israel loses global sympathy and the bloody conflict unfolds.

    If you notice that, here, flaunting the self-centeredness and solipsism of a spoiled and insecure teenage girl miraculously becomes admirable when Jews are the ones doing it, you are an anti-Semite.

    As a result, assertions regarding Jewish identification that fail to take account of perceived threats to Judaism may seriously underestimate the extent of Jewish commitment. Surface declarations of a lack of Jewish identity may be highly misleading.

    For writing the sentence above and many other things that have, time without number, turned out to be true, Kevin MacDonald is denounced by all “respectable” and “civilized” people as an anti-Semite. How long will it be till recognition is given to the fact that “anti-Semitism” is a word that means “noticing how Jews behave” and nothing else?

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