 |
| Part of a series on |
| Antisemitism |
|---|
 |
 Category |
The Community Security Trust (CST) is a British charity whose purpose is to provide safety, security, and advice to the Jewish community in the UK. It provides advice, training, representation and research.
The Community Security Trust grew out of the Community Security Organisation, which became independent of the Board of Deputies of British Jews in 1986. [1] [2] It was registered as a charity in 1994 and has a mission to provide safety, security, and advice to the Jewish community in the UK. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The CST's mission statement says, "To work at all times for the physical protection of British Jews." [9] The CST began recording antisemitic incidents in 1984. [10] [11] [12]
The group's founding chairman is the British businessman Gerald Ronson, and its deputy chairman is Lloyd Dorfman. [13] [14] The chief executive of the CST is Mark Gardner, who was previously the Director of Communications. [15] Dave Rich is the Director of Policy at CST. [16]
The CST has four offices, [17] over 90 employees and a network of several thousand volunteers from all parts of the Jewish community, who work closely with the police, including for joint patrols, advisory, and training. [7] [18] [19]
The CST provides security advice and training for Jewish schools, synagogues and communal organisations and gives assistance to those bodies that are affected by antisemitism. The CST also assists and supports individual members of the Jewish community who have been affected by antisemitism and antisemitic incidents. It advises and represents the Jewish community on matters of antisemitism, terrorism and security and works with police, government and international bodies. All this work is provided at no charge. [19]
In 2012, the CST provided the model for a new anti-Islamophobia project, Tell MAMA [20] (run by interfaith organisation Faith Matters), [21] with which it now works closely. [22]
The CST has recorded antisemitic incidents in the UK since 1984 and publishes an annual Antisemitic Incidents Report. The CST also published Terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad 1968-2010, a definitive report of terrorist attacks against Jewish communities around the world. [23]
In 2003, the charity worked with the Board of Deputies of British Jews to submit a report concerning Iran and antisemitism to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. [8]
In 2020, the charity released a report on rising antisemitic incidents in universities named Campus Antisemitism in Britain 2018–2020. It provided advice to universities on how to respond to reports of antisemitism. The report was debated in the House of Lords in January 2021. [24] [25]
The CST has been active in monitoring and attempting to combat extremist activity online.
In 2019, the CST recorded 1,805 incidents of antisemitic abuse, 697 of which were online. [4] The group considered it likely that Gaza-Israel tensions and turmoil within the UK's Labour Party contributed in part to an increase in such incidents. [26] [27]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CST reported in 2020 that it had recorded a drop in physical assaults on Jewish people in the UK, but had noted an increase in online abuse, including antisemitic conspiracy theories accusing Jewish people of engineering the pandemic as a "hoax" or spreading COVID-19, among other antisemitic content. [28] [29] [30] The charity had also said that it noticed far-right commentators online discussing spreading COVID-19 to synagogues. [9]
The CST has released reports detailing content it considers harmful on certain alt-tech platforms such as Parler, BitChute, and Gab. The CST stated that the website BitChute was hosting videos from National Action, a neo-Nazi terrorist group in the UK. [31] The Guardian reported that CST's analysis discovered posts on Telegram which "...celebrat[ed] Thomas Mair and David Copeland, and other far-right terrorists." [32] In early 2021, the CST reported the website BitChute to Ofcom for content it considered antisemitic, hateful, and extremist. [33] [34] The CST has scrutinized other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for antisemitic content. [35] [36] [37]
The charity was among the groups that worked with TikTok to develop a Holocaust education initiative launched in early 2021. [38]
After the storming of the Capitol in the United States in January 2021, the CST warned that calls for similar events to take place in the United Kingdom, including a proposed storming of Parliament or Downing Street, were appearing in far-right spaces online. [39] [40]
In 2023, the CST recorded 4,103 antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom, the highest ever reported in a calendar year, and an increase of 147% compared to 2022. The figures spiked after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. [41]
In May 2014, the Jewish Chronicle reported that the former chief executive of the CST, Richard Benson, (who had stepped down from the position in 2013) [42] was one of the highest paid charity leaders within the British Jewish community, earning £170,000-£190,000 per annum. The charity had an annual turnover of £7.34 million (making it one of the larger UK Jewish charities) and 63 employees. [43]
As of 2020, the CST, led by new chief executive Mark Gardner, had 92 staff members, one of whom was paid at a similar rate of £170,000-£179,000 per annum, according to the charity regulator, the Charity Commission for England and Wales. [44]
Beginning in 2015, the UK government's Home Office has provided 'The Jewish Community Protective Security Grant' for the security of synagogues, schools and other Jewish centres, with the CST as the Grant Recipient. Home Secretary Sajid Javid pledged to increase funding, bringing the total amount allocated from 2015 to 2019 to £65.2 million. [45] [46] In 2020, the grant was renewed, and the CST received £14 million in funding for protecting the security of the Jewish community and its institutions. [47] [48] [49] As of 2020, the CST had 1,500 volunteers. [44]
Amidst a rise in antisemitism during the Israel-Hamas war, the UK government provided £3 to the CST in October 2023, for a total of £18 million in funding for 2023. The additional funding provided additional security to more than 480 Jewish community institutions, including nearly 200 schools and more than 250 synagogues. [41]
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in February 2024 a new £72 million security package to fund the CST through 2028, inclusive of £18 million in funding for 2024-25. [41]
In 2011, a number of articles appeared in the British weekly newspaper The Jewish Chronicle that questioned the work and functioning of the CST. Gilbert Kahn, of Kean University in the US, took the view that British Jewry did not need a CST because British Jews paid taxes to the state for their physical protection and could therefore depend on the police. On 15 April, the newspaper's columnist Geoffrey Alderman argued against the CST on the grounds that its leadership and funding were neither transparent nor accountable. Alderman returned to the subject on 10 June, when he speculated that his doubts about the CST and its work were more widely shared. [50] [51]
In July 2015, Alderman devoted his column to the retirement of the CST's Director of Security, Carol Laser. Alderman speculated on the reason for her retirement and questioned whether it was wise that she had agreed to have her identity revealed, considering that the nature of her work would have made enemies. [52]
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)| General | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education and studies |
| ||||||
| Religious |
| ||||||
| Publications | |||||||
| Charities |
| ||||||
| Political | |||||||
| Israeli relations |
| ||||||
| Related | |||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. Its editor is Jake Wallis Simons.
British Jews are British citizens who are Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.
Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290.
Tell MAMA is a national project which records and measures anti-Muslim incidents in the United Kingdom. It is modelled on the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) and like the CST it also provides support for victims, working closely with organisations such as Victim Support. The reception of the group by British Muslims is highly mixed, due to the relationship between Tell MAMA and the Jewish CST group.
Evidence for the presence of Jewish communities in the geographical area today covered by Austria can be traced back to the 12th century. In 1848 Jews were granted civil rights and the right to establish an autonomous religious community, but full citizenship rights were given only in 1867. In an atmosphere of economic, religious and social freedom, the Jewish population grew from 6,000 in 1860 to almost 185,000 in 1938. In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and thousands of Austrians and Austrian Jews who opposed Nazi rule were sent to concentration camps. Of the 65,000 Viennese Jews deported to concentration camps, only about 2,000 survived, while around 800 survived World War II in hiding.
The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) is the democratic representative body of all the Jewish communities of Scotland. The council was founded in 1999 in response to Scottish devolution, with the principal aim of providing the Jewish community of Scotland with a single voice in dealings with the Scottish Parliament and Government, other communities, and other statutory and official bodies.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) is a British non-governmental organisation established in August 2014 by members of the Anglo-Jewish community. It publishes research, organises rallies and petitions, and conducts litigation.
Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
Jonathan Sacerdoti is a British broadcaster, journalist and TV producer based in the United Kingdom. He covers stories relating to the UK and Europe, as well as terrorism and extremism stories, race relations, Middle East analysis and the British royal family. He is also a campaigner against antisemitism.
There have been instances of antisemitism within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) since its establishment. Notable occurrences include canards about "Jewish finance" during the Boer War and antisemitic remarks from leading Labour politician Ernest Bevin. In the 2000s, controversies arose over comments made by Labour politicians regarding an alleged "Jewish lobby", a comparison by London Labour politician Ken Livingstone of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, and a 2005 Labour attack on Jewish Conservative Party politician Michael Howard.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is a British organisation formed in 2017 for Jewish members of the Labour Party. Its aims include a commitment "to strengthen the party in its opposition to all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism ... to uphold the right of supporters of justice for Palestinians to engage in solidarity activities", and "to oppose attempts to widen the definition of antisemitism beyond its meaning of hostility towards, or discrimination against, Jews as Jews".
David Miller is a British sociologist whose research and publications focus on Islamophobia and propaganda. Miller was Professor of Sociology at the University of Strathclyde (2004–2011) and the University of Bath (2011–2018) and was Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Bristol (2018–2021). He is the co-founder and co-director of the non-profit company Public Interest Investigations (PII).
The working definition of antisemitism, also called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism or IHRA definition, is a non-legally binding statement on what antisemitism is, that reads: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." Accompanying the working definition, but of disputed status, are 11 illustrative examples whose purpose is described as guiding the IHRA in its work, seven of which relate to criticism of the Israeli government. As such, pro-Israeli organizations have been advocates for the worldwide legal adoption of the definition.
Since the foundation of the Conservative Party in 1834, there have been numerous instances of antisemitism in the party, from both Conservative party leaders and other party figures.
Na'amod is a movement of British Jews seeking to end the British Jewish community's support for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. They state their aim as "to work for freedom, equality and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis". Members are active in many parts of the country including London, Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds and Newcastle. They estimate they have over 250 members.
