The arson attack on ambulances belonging to Hatzola, the Jewish first-aid association, in the car-park of a synagogue in Golders Green, the heartland of London’s Jewish community, sent a shiver down my spine (and, I presume, the spines of many Jews wherever they may be). And also, according to reports, caused discomfort in many decent people in the UK and elsewhere.

It is a more overt expression of what has been called ‘the longest hatred,’ i.e., Jew-hatred, which has been with us in one form or another for as long as anyone can remember and beyond.

I was born in war-time London to parents who had managed to escape Nazi Germany and find refuge in Britain (after relatives there had provided the necessary funds guaranteeing that my refugee father would not become a burden on the British tax-paying public). But Britain, to its credit, accepted considerable numbers of refugees from Nazism, including some ten thousand children under the Kindertransport system (again against funds and guarantees). England was a Christian country, and Christian values were supreme. The British sense of decency prevailed over the prejudice that still lay under the surface of society.

I was lucky to have been born into a relatively open and democratic society that provided health care and education for all. I know that my........

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