BOLD VIOLETS

It was most interesting to read Elaine Margolin’s review of Deborah E. Lipstadt’s latest book and especially her perception of Lipstadt’s reticence on the subject of antisemitism (“A moderate approach to antisemitism,” February 1). Yet I believe the latest incarnations of antisemitism are nothing more than the perpetrators becoming more emboldened in this social media environment, where we find many are ready to speak or print what’s on their mind, whereas before it was somewhat veiled.

This is especially so in what Western Jews would now call an open and free society, possibly as a prewar German Jew would have considered himself as German as any.

I am not predicting the coming of another apocalypse. However, many, as previously mentioned, have become more emboldened and outspoken in their views, typified in the UK by the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, who, as we have come to realize, is a habitual offender. His hatred of Israel has morphed into the antisemitism pervading his party, and a Corbyn-led Labour government would be a nightmare come true, not only for Jews but for all correct thinking people.

It therefore behooves us to not to be shrinking violets but brave and bold in our beliefs of who and what we are and have achieved. It is therefore simply becoming more relevant and obvious to relay: “When someone spits at us – it is now definitely not raining.”

STEPHEN VISHNICK

Tel Aviv