From post-war British fascists to modern day
antisemitism
GERALD M RONSON cbe, CHAIRMAN OF CST
Gerald Ronson is a prominent UK property
developer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
A lifetime spent fighting antisemitism is
encompassed in his role as chairman of CST, the UK
charity responsible for Jewish communal security
and for monitoring antisemitism. Amongst many
other interests, Mr Ronson is a board member
of the Government’s UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which is
building a permanent Holocaust memorial and learning centre.
I have spent my entire adult life
opposing antisemitism and fascism. In
that time, much has changed, but the
fundamentals of the problem and how
to deal with it have not.
British citizens, choosing Jews as one
of their primary targets for murder.
Our community still needs protecting
and I am proud to lead this through my
chairmanship of CST.
In the 1950s and 60s, Jews in
post-war Britain faced antisemitic
abuse and attacks from fascists
and open Nazis. Jews needed to be
physically defended on the streets,
which meant standing up and fighting
back. That is what we did and I am
proud to have played my part.
Antisemitism endures and shape shifts
across the centuries, because it differs
from other types of racism in claiming
to reveal why the world looks as it
does. (I will not accord it the respect
of referring to it as an ideology.) In
times of crisis and change, people need
explanations and ultimately that is why
antisemitism persists.
Nowadays, Jews are no longer an
immigrant community and we consider
ourselves well integrated into British
society. Of course it helps enormously
that racism itself is no longer legally
or socially acceptable, even if current
trends raise the worrying prospect that
Britain may be sliding backwards in
that particular regard.
Fast forward to today and you have
Jihadi terrorists, including our fellow
After the war, antisemites blamed
Jewish financial control of politicians
and the media for non-white
immigration, claiming it was our latest
plot to undermine, bastardise and
control the white race. They blamed us
for the collapse of Empire, for global
Communism, for multinationals and
global capitalism, for the Suez Crisis,
for the Race Relations Act.
8 – Lessons Learned? Reflections on antisemitism and the Holocaust
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