MOSCOW, January 14 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — Members of Jewish communities in the county of Kent in South East England have said that they have observed no anti-Semitic sentiments whatsoever, despite a recent survey by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) finding record highs in the number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United Kingdom.
“There are no signs of anti-Semitism in Ramsgate,” Godfrey Fischer, a member of the East Kent Jewish community told Sputnik news agency Wednesday. “This is rather strange, because it is a very small survey and frankly, I do not believe it.”
Geoffrey Gradus from the Margate Synagogue in Cliftonville, Kent also told Sputnik that there were no signs of anti-Semitism in his area.
“There is not much in here,” Gradus said over the phone. “There are not so many Jews here anyways.”
He also said that the rise in anti-Semitic sentiments might be true in more populated areas.
According to the CAA, the United Kingdom is home to some 269,000 Jews, who make up 0.4 percent of the British population.
Godfrey Fischer reminded that Italian Jew Moses Montefiore who came to Ramsgate in the 19th century to become a banker, was also a great benefactor for both Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Kent.
“So we have good relations with everybody here. We don’t have any problems,” Fischer told Sputnik.
The CAA Anti-Semitism Barometer states that Britain is at a tipping point and “the results of our survey should be a wakeup call.” The study, consisting of a YouGov study and a CAA poll of British Jews urges that anti-Semitism is treated “with zero tolerance,” otherwise it will continue to grow and says that “and British Jews may increasingly question their place in their own country.”
