Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue, reflects on the terror attack and why she believes the way people responded shows we are the one of the least antisemitic countries in the world
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner is keen to be heard as a progressive Jewish voice. An inclusion and development coach, she has been Rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue in south east London since April 2022. Speaking to The Mirror a week after the Manchester terror attack and in the wake of the second anniversary of the October 7 Hamas atrocity, she says:
Which story do you choose to tell? I’ve heard lots of different versions of what the terror attack on the Manchester synagogue means to people, depending on the kind of stories they like to tell.
Last Thursday, a terrorist attacked worshippers in a Manchester synagogue on the Jewish holiest day, our Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
Do you remember what you thought and what you felt when you heard this?
When I heard about this, I went into shock. I felt as though I myself was being attacked, or that I was about to be attacked. But I wasn’t.
Not only that, once I saw what had happened, I realised that the story I wanted to tell my congregation was that the police stepped in within 7 minutes and prevented it from being far worse.
The story that I will always remember of that day is my telephone being immediately flooded with messages from total strangers, many Muslim friends and colleagues, friends of other faiths and of no faith.
This was a moment which confirmed that people who are not Jewish care about what happens to Jews.
Many people in Britain know that what happens to Jewish people here reflects the communal health of Britain as a whole. We live in a great country that cares about minorities and will step up to defend them. Defend us.
Just looking at what happened with the police shows the true Britain.
After the police shot through the door of the synagogue and killed someone, they immediately reported what they had done to the organisation that checks the conduct of the police. There was no cover-up, no pretending that this went smoothly. This is what a robust democracy looks like.
As a Jewish person, I am aware of the difference between my perception and reality. It’s true that the level of antisemitic online abuse, verbal abuse, revolting graffiti, has risen in the last two years since October 7.
But it is also true that the data, the facts and not my feelings, which can mislead me, show that we are the one of the least antisemitic countries in the world.
Most British people, in a perfectly benign way, don’t really think about Jews. How great, just to be a standard and mundane part of society.
British people are sensible. They know that what is happening in Gaza is because of the Israeli Government, which is very different to the Jewish person in Manchester, Swansea or Leeds that they might know from their children’s school, or have heard on the radio.
The terrorist attack on Thursday is an attack on all of our values. This is not about Jews; this is about what kind of society we are and want our children and grandchildren to grow up in. I am very proud and grateful to live in a democracy like Britain, which is measured not by the good days but by the bad ones, like last week.
When a place of worship of a religious minority was attacked, decency won.
We are blessed to live in Britain, as the Jewish community thrives here, contributes here, and lives in a glorious state of being ignored most of the time. I love that.