Two seemingly separate questions have been bothering the leaders of the Britsh Jewish community in recent months. The first is whether to join a demand from the Muslim and Sikh communities to enact a law against religious discrimination in British society. The second is whether to refuse to answer the religion question on the census taking place this month.The truth is there's a connection between the two questions, dealing with the extent to which Jews are accepted, if not assimilated, in the United Kingdom. Identifying with the religious discrimination complaint would "move" Jews from the category of "white" - the vast majority of whom are Christian - to "non-white," meaning to a very large extent, the Muslim population.
Furthermore, adding up the number of Jews as a result of the answer to the religion question on the census would, say some Jews, put them in a position of being a minority, in contrast to the "Christian" majority. The Jews are bothered by the general description of "Christian" in the census, creating the impression of a homogeneous society with some minorities, Jewish and Muslim, when in fact, say Jewish spokesmen, that's a misleading definition because it includes many sub-groups, like Anglicans, Catholics, Protestants and others.
In the background to the controversy are two surveys recently conducted in Britain. One, by Derby University, was requested by the Home Office and shows that the Jewish minority (some 270,000 people) are less worried about religious discrimination than the Muslims and Sikhs. On the other hand the Community Security Trust, an association of security officers of large communities, shows that in 2000, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain doubled over the previous year. There were 405 attacks on Jews and their property in 2000, compared to 207 in 1999. The incidents included two attempted murders. There was a particularly steep rise in the last quarter of 2000, suspected to be the result of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with most of the offenders Muslim immigrants. But the trend was evident even before the outbreak of the Intifada.
Neville Nagler, director of the Jewish Board of Deputies, the official representative organization of British Jewry, blamed "certain British journalists" for contributing to the rise in incidents, claiming their coverage of the Intifada is one-sided and "motivated by ideology and prejudice."
But as opposed to anti-Semitism, British Jews are less worried about religious discrimination than other religious minorities, the Derby survey shows. According to the survey, some 59 percent of the Jews questioned said they have encountered hostility on religious grounds, while 82 percent of the Sikhs and 75 percent of the Muslims say they have encountered such hostility. The Jews in the survey defined "ignorance," "verbal assaults" and the vandalism of Jewish communal property as the main problems, and in that order. All three issues worry Jews less than they do Muslims and Sikhs.
Since the definitions of race and religion do not overlap, there is range of opinion among Jews whether they want legislation against religious discrimination. Current legislation against religious discrimination specifically refers to discrimination against Jews, although their skin color is the same as their Christian neighbors. However, the current law does not include a reference to Muslims, so it does not include coverage of all those groups that are Muslim - Central Asians, Arabs, Turks, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Africans - and those groups include both Blacks and whites.
Most British Jews are liberals, so they naturally are against any form of discrimination. But they are divided on whether they are interested in supporting the Muslim call for a new law. "It may not be in our interest to raise public awareness about religious differences," one leader of the Jewish community told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, asking to remain anonymous. Only Haredi Jews in Britain explicitly support new legislation against religious discrimination.
The religion clause in the census appears for the first time since 1851. Although completing the census form is required by law, the item about religion is voluntary. The Board of Deputies is interested in knowing the exact number of Jews in the country to better plan for the community's needs. But Barry Cosmin, a well-known Jewish demographer, also is perturbed by the wrong impression that might result from a positioning of Jews as distinct from "Christian."
Graham Zelik, vice president of the University of London, is also against an answer to the religion question, and has come out against it publicly, on grounds of civil rights. It's none of the state's business to know about the religious faith of the citizenry, he argues.
But to show how complicated the situation can be, the Derby survey included a Jew of Indian origin. He told the Jewish Chronicle that he runs up against "multi-layered racism." Whites regard him as an Indian, the Hindus regard him as a Jew, and the Jews think he's Black