‘People do care’ about Jewish hate, William assures survivor
Prince says prejudice has ‘no place in society’ as he addresses anti-semitism during synagogue visit
THE Prince of Wales has told the Jewish community that “people do care” about rising anti-semitism, as he held the hand of a Holocaust survivor and told her: “I’m so sorry it’s got to this stage.”
The Prince said he and the Princess of Wales are both “extremely concerned” about the rise in anti-semitism in the UK, adding it has “no place in society”.
Saying he wanted to reassure the Jewish community that “people do care, people do listen”, he argued it was essential for people to break out of social media echo chambers to understand the prejudice of today.
In a quiet moment with Holocaust survivor Renee Salt, 94, the Prince heard how anti-semitism was the worst she has witnessed since the Second World War. “I’m so sorry it’s got to this stage,” he told her, reaching for her hand. “It will get better.”
During a visit to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London, he also met with young people to hear of their experiences. Edward Isaacs, 22, the president of the Union of Jewish Students, told him: “We’ve truly seen an explosion of anti-semitism on campus.”
The Prince spoke of his visit to the Stutthof concentration camp in 2017, saying it gave him a more “informed view”, but added: “A lot [of people] live in their silos, in their echo chamber on social media, they don’t have different influences, they don’t have anything else, they might not have anyone they know who’s Jewish … it’s so important we break out of those boxes.”
Wearing a kippah, the Prince told a group of young ambassadors of the Holocaust Educational Trust: “Anti-semitism has no place in society, in the UK. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ... That’s why I’m here today to reassure you all that people do care, people do listen and we can’t let that keep going.”
It marked a return to work for the Prince, who missed a memorial service for his godfather King Constantine of Greece on Tuesday for undisclosed personal reasons. Last week, he issued a statement on the conflict in Gaza, in which he called for an end to fighting.
The Community Security Trust has found that anti-semitic incidents reached a record high last year, with two-thirds of the 4,103 reported incidents occurring on or after the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.
The Prince has previously visited the offices of the British Red Cross to hear about the extreme conditions experienced by those in the region and the challenges of getting humanitarian aid. That engagement and the visit to hear about rising anti-semitism were both intended to “recognise the human suffering caused by the ongoing war in the Middle East and the subsequent conflict in Gaza, as well as the rise of anti-semitism around the world”, the palace said.