The emergency summit convened this week by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer should never have been necessary. Yet it was.

After the stabbing of two Jewish men in London’s Golders Green neighborhood, after arson attacks against Jewish targets, after counterterrorism investigations into possible foreign involvement, after police warnings that British Jews now face the greatest threat in modern British history, Britain has finally begun speaking about antisemitism not as an unfortunate social problem, but as a national crisis.

That distinction matters.

For decades, antisemitism has been treated differently from every other form of hatred. It is acknowledged ceremonially, condemned rhetorically, memorialized historically — and then politically minimized whenever it reappears in contemporary form.

The result is that Jews are repeatedly told two contradictory things at once:

“You are safe here.” And: “Do not wear your kippah openly.” “Do not walk alone.” “Do not send your children visibly Jewish to school.” “Do not assume police protection will arrive in time.”

This contradiction is not unique to Britain. It has become a defining feature of Jewish life across much of the Western world.

Antisemitism is often called “the oldest hatred,” but that phrase risks becoming cliché unless we understand why it persists across centuries, civilizations, ideologies, and political systems.

Most hatreds are historically bounded. They emerge within specific territorial, ethnic, colonial, or economic conflicts. Antisemitism is different. It mutates. It survives regime change. It adapts itself to whatever........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)