Meet the non-Jewish Brits who stand shoulder to shoulder with us

The last year and a half has been a lonely time for the Jewish community, with supportive friends appearing to be in short supply.

What sympathy there was in the immediate aftermath of October 7 seemed to evaporate once Israel retaliated in Gaza.

This has led many to experience feelings of isolation and abandonment, something that was recently backed up by research carried out by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR). A study last year titled “A year after October 7: British Jewish views on Israel, antisemitism and Jewish life” documented profound changes in many Jews’ relationship with wider British society.

More than a third of its respondents (39 per cent) said they felt closer to their Jewish friends since October 7, while almost a quarter (24 per cent) said they felt less close to their non-Jewish friends.

“This seems to indicate that a significant proportion of Jews are experiencing some social distancing from non-Jews who they previously felt quite close to, and finding greater solace and connection in their Jewish social circles,” the report said.

It can often seem like the voices of opponents are louder and more pervasive, but it should not be forgotten that the community does have friends who are not afraid to speak out and remain steadfast in their allyship. I spoke to to several such allies about what motivates them to keep their hands of friendship outstretched.

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REVEREND HAYLEY ACE

From the outside, there is nothing particularly remarkable about Lea Valley Church. But inside dozens of pictures hang from the ceiling depicting the hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Reverend Hayley Ace, 43, a New Zealander of indigenous heritage and a glamorous “accidental activist”, runs the fiercely pro-Israel church in Waltham Abbey, Essex, with her husband Reverend Timothy Guttman.

In addition the couple also founded and run the Christian Action Against Antisemitism (CAAA), which encourages Christians to “stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish communities around the world” against antisemitism. “It’s very important to us to communicate our solidarity with the Jewish people and the Jewish nation,” Ace tells me.

You don’t need to be grateful for me standing up. For me you are my family – I have no religion without the Jewish people

As her thousands of Instagram followers will know, she has rarely missed an opportunity to attend one of the many demonstrations and vigils organised by the Jewish community since Hamas attacked Israel 16 months ago, triggering the war in Gaza. Whether it is to deliver a speech as a “true friend to the Jewish people,” as Ace describes herself, or to simply show her support for the families of the hostages held captive in Gaza, Ace is relentless in her efforts.

The CAAA’s work, which aims to “right the many wrongs done in the name of Christianity against Jewish people”, is not new, but Ace’s relationship with the Jewish community has certainly reached new heights since October 7.

Back in September Jewish Care presented her with its Honorary Woman of Distinction Award in recognition of “her steadfast dedication and passion to combating antisemitism and her solidarity with the Jewish community, promoting positive change and interfaith dialogue to support community integration”.

That recognition and appreciation goes higher still. On a recent trip to Israel, she was invited to have tea with President Herzog at his home and she was also profiled in various Israeli media outlets. Spreading the word is a key aspect of evangelical Christianity, but Ace said the CAAA has a “no proselytising” statement in this regard. “I’m not there to convert them to Christianity – that is not even in my heart at all. I’m there as a true friend.”

Ace is regularly trolled online and has even been subjected to antisemitic abuse herself. She recalls how, when she was live-streaming a counter-protest, “a young boy came up to me, because I was wearing a baseball cap with a Star of David that I had just drew on. He just came up to me and said, ‘Go f*** yourself and go back to Poland, you dirty Jew.’”

But this did not weaken her resolve. “It’s very important to us to communicate our solidarity with the Jewish people,” she says.

She appreciates the recognition from the Jewish community but insists that this is not what drives her. “I always say you don’t need to be grateful for me standing up. For me, you are my family – I have no religion without the Jewish people.”

Pro-Israel church: (left) Rev Hayley Ace with husband Rev Timothy Guttman. Right: Marek Bekerman[Missing Credit]

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HENRIETTA LEWIS

Henrietta Lewis has many Jewish colleagues in the publishing industry so she understood immediately the impact of Hamas’s murderous attack on October 7.

Lewis, 60, who works with Tel Aviv-based literary scout Lucy Abrahams, tells me: “I realised very quickly after October 7 what a seismic event this was for the vast majority of Jews worldwide. But what could I do? Within days I made a donation to Magen David Adom and set up a monthly direct debit to CAA (Campaign Against Antisemitism).

“I emailed both former colleagues and friends to say I was thinking of them. I felt awkward about it, wondering if it was the appropriate thing to do, but did it anyway. The responses I got were so gracious and full of thanks that it pained me as it just seemed so normal, so morally correct, to be an ally.”

She posted on social media “‘from an ally in London’ in the hope it would somehow show people they weren’t alone”, she says. Despite having MS, which makes it difficult to stand for long, Lewis has attended numerous marches against antisemitism and vigils for the hostages where she has been “humbled by the gratitude for my allyship”.

She also regularly calls out anti-Israel rhetoric. “I have made complaint after complaint to the BBC about their factually incorrect and often biased reporting, and to the Met about its, to put it politely, light-touch policing of the marches.”

Lewis says she has been “stunned” by the anti-Israel backlash, adding: “I bought a stash of FCK HMS stickers and never leave the house without them, ready to put over antisemitic stickers and posters here in London, as well as in Venice and Athens.

“I obviously knew antisemitism existed pre-October 7 but had no idea it ran so very deep and wide and couldn’t have predicted the horrific way so-called ‘progressives’ have latched on to October 7, seeing tearing down posters of hostages as ‘resistance’. The way antisemites have been emboldened is sickening.”

Her steadfast allyship has come at a price. She says she has not heard from some friends since the start of the conflict, with some unfollowing her on social media.

“At times I have been accused of being paid by Israel, of hasbarah, when for example making comments supportive of Israel in The Times. I feel somewhat alienated, as if I don’t recognise the country I’m from and its institutions.”

There’s a very real sense of the world as I knew it before October 7 and the one that has been revealed since that day

Lewis, who has long been interested in the Holocaust and Israel’s history, is nonetheless resolute.

“For me there’s a very real sense of the world as I knew it before October 7 and the one which has been revealed since that day. I always wondered how the Nazis did it and am appalled to live in a time which has made it abundantly clear how they did. My unwavering support for Israel and Jews the world over has led to conflict with both family and friends but I don’t regret for a second being a staunch ally. I now consider myself a Zionist. Am Israel Chai.”

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MAREK BEKERMAN

Former BBC journalist Marek Bekerman lectures in international journalism at Salford University.

Aged around 30, Bekerman learnt that his paternal grandfather was Jewish. This sparked a voyage of discovery that culminated in Polish-born Bekerman, 66, embarking on an Orthodox conversion.

“I love it,” he says of the process that started two and a half years ago. “As I got more and more involved a lot of things changed in terms of my perception of not only Israel, Judaism and the Jewish world, but geopolitics and my whole outlook on life in general.” In December 2023, less than three months after October 7, Bekerman travelled to Israel with his teenage son. “Flights were being cancelled, tourists stopped visiting and people stopped spending money there. So we happily spent as much as we could going around Israel and talking to people.

“I was determined to buck the trend – and it worked. People really appreciated that. When we talked to people in the street, when we interacted, it was great. I got so much closer to Israeli people and to Israel itself.”

Not only was there no solidarity and no empathy...but there was a whole other bunch of people who were literally celebrating

He had previously visited Israel in 2015 and 2019 in a professional capacity and has just returned from two weeks volunteering to support the IDF in southern Israel.

A year into the Gaza conflict Bekerman started wearing a kippah to work and does not shy away from difficult conversations about the conflict. “I don’t think that the University of Salford is as outspoken politically as the Russell Group universities and tries to keep balance, but a sense of what you could describe as a ‘wokey tilt’ is perceptible in some areas,” he says.

Some students have aired views such as accusing Israel of committing genocide and suggesting that IDF soldiers are deliberately murdering Palestinian children, he says. “It’s almost impossible to combat that because the majority of students just don’t have the critical skills to put together the package of rationality and causality to withstand the impact of social media. But I’m not giving up.

“I’m a maverick in that type of a university setup because I want to teach journalism and not procedures or how to create content – which have little to do with journalism. Some people find it difficult and when I challenge them, they hate it because they are not used to being asked difficult questions.”

I ask if he expresses his pro-Israel stance at work. “Not overtly in a campaigning fashion, but if there’s a context in which somebody says something against and blatantly idiotic, I will react. I won’t react in an advocacy style – I’ll just try to put facts in front of them.”

He admits it’s hard to maintain such a position in culture driven by social media, but that won’t stop him.

“I’ve always been rebellious, defiant and ‘the other’. So the more people try to suppress me, the more I fight back. That’s the way I was made.”

Hands of friendship: Mark Birkbeck (left) and Professor Dibyesh Anand[Missing Credit]

​PROFESSOR DIBYESH ANAND 

As well as being a professor of international relations, Dibyesh Anand is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement and Employability) at the University of Westminster.

The Indian-born professor describes himself as “a queer person with progressive values and abhorrence of prejudices and bigotries”. Yet he is the first to admit it has taken “years to unlearn unconscious antisemitism that prevails in progressive academia”.

He tells me: “I read a lot about Holocaust and did attend Holocaust Memorial Day-related events occasionally but had limited engagement with Jewish people organised in any communal sense and certainly had no appreciation of Zionist beliefs.”

But that has all changed in recent years – particularly since the October 7 pogroms.

“I have been on a long journey of learning and unlearning, listening and conversing, speaking out publicly and privately against antisemitism and being absolutely clear that our anti-racist commitments cannot not be inclusive of Jewish people,” he says, adding that he is “proud” to work for a university that is “keen to be truly inclusive”.

I have come to realise that there is a blind spot around antisemitism within progressive circles in academia, and I have been part of it

“I have had the fortune of ‘discovering’ a good number of my students and colleagues are Jewish and they recognise the institutional work we are doing and share their experience with me,” he says. Anand has participated in various Jewish communal events and last month hosted a debate at the Contemporary Antisemitism London 2025 conference about boycotts – something he is all too familiar with.

“My speaking out on social media after October 7 about how Hamas’s attack was not only ghastly but would also increase the suffering of Palestinians through Israeli retaliation led to trolling and I was accused of ‘both sideism’ or being ‘pro Israel’.

“The level of abuse and vitriol and the use of antisemitic slurs to question and attack was initially hurtful but then I started seeing it as a learning opportunity.

“It was an eye-opener for it gave me a glimpse of isolation tactics, revolutionary cosplaying, self-righteousness and/or bullying that masks itself as anti-Zionism for some.”

He experienced similar vitriol after a keynote lecture he delivered online at a conference on Democracy and Authoritarianism organised by Tel Aviv University was posted on YouTube this year. “While I knew many fellow academics may disagree with it, and I respect disagreements, what I had not realised was the scale and unfairness of the smear campaign.

“I was accused of doing this for the sake of power and authority, of being ‘bought out by the Zionists’, and so on. So, the BDS movement in practice seemed to shift from boycotting Israeli institutions to boycotting any individual who does not subscribe to BDS. I would understand Palestinian focus on Israel and its conduct but question this obsession with Israel and Zionism that many non-Palestinians have in the name of solidarity, while ignoring exclusionary and violent practices of many other states like Turkey toward Kurds, India toward Kashmiris, Pakistan toward Baloch, or China toward Tibetans and Uyghurs.”

He freely admits that his own views have evolved over time. “From being a signatory of one of the first calls for academic boycott of Israeli institutions in 2002 during my PhD days to someone who insensitively didn’t realise comparing Israeli conduct vis-à-vis Palestinians with Nazi Germany was wrong, I have come to realise that there is a blind spot around antisemitism within progressive circles in academia, and I have unwittingly been a part of it.

“Our anti-racism often does not extend to being aware of racialised prejudices Jewish individuals and communities experience today. This has to change. We have to change. I have a strong determination to work with others to foster that change in the UK higher education sector and beyond.”

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MARK BIRBECK

Mark Birbeck says it was not October 7 but October 9 that inspired him to set up Our Fight, a UK-based campaign group that aims to stand alongside Jews and Israelis.

Two days after Hamas attacked Israel, Birbeck, 60, travelled to central London to join a vigil opposite Downing Street. “I figured I had to be there,” he says. The event, he recalls, was attended by “a few hundred people” and addressed by David Lammy, now Britain’s foreign secretary.

“I felt very naive – I was expecting there to be loads of people there showing solidarity. There were a lot of young people but it was mainly Jews and Israelis. Then I bumped into my Jewish neighbour who literally said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Not in a horrible way obviously, but he just genuinely was like ‘what brought you here? Were you walking past?’ So that started sowing this seed, this idea, that not only was there no solidarity and no empathy, but Jewish people didn’t expect it.”

That wasn’t all, however. “Then when I got home I saw on the news that people had been setting off flares outside the Israeli Embassy. Not only was there no empathy and nobody out there showing solidarity but there was a whole other bunch of people who were literally celebrating.”

Later that month Birbeck attended another solidarity rally, this time in Trafalgar Square, where the names of the hostages were read out. Afterwards he and some friends went for a drink and decided to set up Our Fight. The group has been campaigning against antisemitism and for Israel ever since – online, at marches and events such as a symposium entitled Remaking the Promise of Never Again at JW3 earlier this year – as well as a solidarity mission last week to Israel to coincide with Yom Hashoah.

Birbeck has even given up his day job in the tech industry to focus on the campaign.

Part of what inspired him to fight against antisemitism was reading Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. “She described antisemitism as the vehicle through which you’re able to arrive at totalitarianism,” he explains. “Once you start thinking about it like that, you think, ‘Oh, my God, antisemitism is the most dangerous idea that human beings have created.’ So this is for all of us – it’s a serious problem for everybody.”

The fight, as he sees it, extends to defending Israel. “I got the sense early on that antisemitism was expressed through being anti-Israel. People were blatantly lying about Israel. So I realised that to challenge antisemitism our campaign had to support Israel.

“But then what happened is I soon realised that Israel was leading the fight that we needed to have. It was sacrificing its kids to wage war on Islamism, and the West was not only ungrateful, it was criticising Israel for it.

“I’m not going to somehow solve this problem because it’s enormous and international and global, but I feel like we need to have something in place that people can gravitate towards. There’s lots of non-Jews out there who feel much the same way that I do, but where would they go to express their support for Jews and horror at antisemitism.”