Dear Letters Page,
The recent outcry by the Jewish community of the British Isles about the level of anti-Sem-itism being fostered by the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and previously by former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and others shows that anti-Semitism, or the irrational hatred or dislike of Jews, is truly alive and well on a global scale. I worked as a chef in Tel-Aviv for ten years as a non-Jew, but after my return to the UK I was alarmed by the anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiments that I encountered on a regular basis.
I remember one Israeli friend asking me: ‘Why does everyone hate us so much?’ I didn’t know how to reply. My friend was not political, or even religious, but simply Jewish. Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch Christian who was incarcerated in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp for hiding Jews in her family home in Haarlem in the Netherlands, is only one example of those who have suffered the same fate for curbing the tide of anti-Jewish sentiment. The rise of this ugly phenomenon, known as the oldest hatred, should be countered and opposed at every turn.
