ALEX BRUMMER

AS ONE of Britain’s greatest public intellectuals, the former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks doesn’t engage in careless talk.

Indeed, his description of the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition as an ‘anti-Semite’ who ‘defiles our politics and demeans the country we love’ was not an off-thecuff remark.

It reflects the deep-seated anxiety in the UK’s high-achieving, intensely loyal Jewish community about what the future might hold should Jeremy Corbyn become prime minister.

In recent decades, Britain’s Jews have become accustomed to a political narrative that casts Israel as a country which uses its military power disproportionately and indiscriminately against the Palestinian populations in Gaza and the West Bank.

But never before has a major political party in Britain regarded the creation by the post-war so-called Great Powers (including Russia) of the state of Israel in 1948, in the aftermath of the Holocaust in Europe, as an act of colonialist occupation.

Unrepentant

Yet this seems the case following Corbyn’s comments, made before he became leader, which Sacks has described as the most offensive statement by a British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech about immigration.

Sacks said Corbyn had ‘given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map’.

The truth is that Corbyn and a coterie of unrepentant Marxists who surround him have crossed the line.

Britain is a nation renowned for its tolerance and understanding. For generations, it was a haven for Jews who were fleeing persecution in Russia and Nazi Germany.

For the moment, Corbyn is not prime minister. And, unlike in the Thirties, there are not daily proclamations banning Jews from everyday activities such as walking in public parks or buying petrol.

But, that said, in my conversations at social gatherings and religious services with fellow members of the British Jewish community, I sense a deep-rooted foreboding.

Many of us have been close enough to those generations who lived through the Twenties and Thirties, and who believed back then that a sophisticated nation such as Germany, with a highly assimilated Jewish population, would never turn on its Jewish minority. As we all know, they were wrong: Germany did so with grotesque results.

The conversation among Jewish professionals, medics, lawyers, management consultants and business people at one celebration I attended recently quickly turned to Corbyn and what preparations should be made in case he became prime minister.

Some observations were largely based on his crazy hightax economics. These include massive re-nationalisation programmes for rail firms, energy and water networks, and the postal service.

There is also a proposal for a 50 per cent tax on high earnings and annual rises in corporation tax up to 26 per cent.

But the underlying theme was a reaction to something much more sinister. Whereas Labour MP Luciana Berger has said that Corbyn’s comments made her ‘feel unwelcome’ in her own party, other Jews are beginning to feel unwelcome in Britain.

Historically, Jewish communities have often been forced to leave in a hurry those countries where they had made their homes, but where, suddenly, they didn’t feel safe.

Of course, this often meant it was impossible to take physical property with them. And so it was better to have savings that were portable — for example, in the form of gold sovereigns and diamonds.

There may have been an element of gallows humour involved in the speculations I’ve heard over recent days, but the turn of the discussion was profoundly serious.

The big difference for many Jews now from the Thirties is the existence of the state of Israel. Since its independence in 1948, Israel has accepted waves of immigrants from Arab countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Morocco and Egypt, where they felt unwelcome.

Other exoduses occurred from the former Soviet Union when state policy towards emigration was eased in the Eighties. More recently, there has been a flight from France, where the rise of the Rightwing National Front, together with attacks by Islamic extremists on Jewish targets, made life feel insecure.

But today, for many reasons, Israel is not necessarily the first-choice destination. In fact, some British Jews see escape to Israel as a move from the frying pan into the fire.

After all, Israel’s border towns with Gaza and in the north are under constant attack. In the most recent conflicts, missiles have been fired into cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, although they are well protected by the Iron Dome air defence system, which detects and intercepts rockets, artillery and mortars.

So the conversations among British Jews are turning to other possible destinations.

Some families, with German origins, have made what might seem the curious decision to acquire citizenship in Germany — the country from where their parents or grandparents escaped or were killed.

Thugs

The reasoning seems to be that, post-Brexit, they want their children to have the option of living or working on the continent without the perceived hassle of having to get extra visas for international travel.

But given the eruption of antimigrant violence by far-Right (and some extreme Left-wing) thugs in Saxony and elsewhere in Germany, that may no longer seem an attractive choice.

Another option is to make plans to go to the United States, which has the world’s largest population of Jews.

But although the weather in Florida and California looks attractive and the distinctive Jewish flavours of New York City may be a lure, President Donald Trump’s policies must give pause.

His espousal of racist causes and the neo-Nazi elements involved in last year’s violent demonstrations in Charlottesville suggest less than an affinity for Jews (despite the fact that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is Jewish).

Among other potential boltholes being discussed are Spain, which has an open-door policy to Jews of Spanish descent (dispersed by the 15th century). Portugal, too, is considered a welcome alternative.

Of course, these discussions are all hypothetical, built around the ‘what if’ Jeremy Corbyn was ever to become prime minister.

However, this debate is not just about Corbyn and a hardcore of anti-Semites who are influencing him.

Warning

The Labour Party as a whole is failing to address properly the 250 or so complaints that have been made about antiSemitism in the party.

This raises worrying questions about the willingness of the leadership to tackle the problem — and, worse, suggests that it does not even regard it as a problem.

There will be those who think Lord Sacks’s reference to Enoch Powell is over the top. But the fact the former Chief Rabbi sees a parallel reflects the gravity of the situation.

His warning will have traction with almost every British Jew.

They know that if, God forbid, Britain has an anti-Semitic government under Jeremy Corbyn, there will always be a place for them in Israel under the country’s ‘law of return’. This offers automatic citizenship and a decade of special tax privileges.

But that this is even being discussed, just 70 years on from the horrors of Auschwitz; that British Jews should be feeling so insecure in the country they love, is deeply disturbing.

One of the most solemn moments of every synagogue service on the Jewish Sabbath is a prayer for the Queen, her counsellors and her ministers.

How uncomfortable and disconcerting the recitation of that prayer would feel if the prime minister is a selfproclaimed anti-Zionist who disrespects this country’s Jewish community.