The 53-year-old plans to begin a whole new life in Israel together with his spouse, Mandy Blumenthal, by the end of the year. Both were given birth to and brought up in England.
"I just want to get out of here. It's a massive thing to do but I've actually had enough. People might dislike me in Israel because of my political views, might think I'm too right-wing or left-wing or whatever, but they are not going to dislike me for being Jewish." - He saidTwo different people have been jailed in the past for threatening to kill him simply because he's Jewish.
The couple's decision comes as allegations of anti-Semitism rocks Britain's main opposition Labour Party and its own leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Just about the time, incidents of recorded anti-Semitism are close to record levels.
This is the single most astonishing front page we’ve run at @JewishChron in my decade here. It is totally without precedent. Our paper has been published since 1841. @JewishNewsUK and @JewishTelegraph are our rivals - in name, in business, and on stories pic.twitter.com/peRUPRnqIX— Marcus Dysch (@MarcusDysch) July 25, 2018
Lewis believes Corbyn is the force moving anti-Semitism rather than a threat in himself, saying the Labour leader has "moved the rock and it's the people who are crawling out from underneath it who are the problem."There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We must drive it out of our movement for good. pic.twitter.com/V1voY75yz4— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 5, 2018
Lewis is a strong pro-Israel voice.
The Community Security Trust (CST) - a charity that fights anti-Semitism, recorded 727 anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2018, the second-highest total ever marked for the first fifty per cent of a year considering that the CST began recording anti-Semitic incidents in 1984. Only the total for the first six months of 2017 has been higher.
Gideon Falter, chairman of the Coalition Against Antisemitism (CAA) said:
"We are seeing British Jews increasingly talking about leaving and also seeing signs of people actually leaving, not just to Israel, but also to the United States and Canada -- and Australia is a destination as well."
"Some of our volunteers from the coalition have become aware of so many incidents through their work with us that they have decided to leave and have moved with their families."
"It's a very sad state of affairs because we have all grown up here and for most us this is where our grandparents found refuge during the darkest days of humanity."Yigal Palmor, communications director for the Jewish Agency for Israel claim that 213 Jews had moved from UK to Israel between January and June.
The chaos within Labour was heated, when the party's governing body adopted a fresh code of conduct that included the 38-word International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, however, not all 11 examples of what could constitute anti-Semitic behavior. Jewish groups, prompting some senior Labour figures to call for the party's leadership to consider adopting the IHRA definition in full, but the party leadership seems to be concerned that it would prevent the criticism of Israel and its particular policies.
Corbyn had previously been forced to apologize for reportedly hosting an event where the Israeli government was likened to the Nazis.
He acknowledged that Labour have been "too slow" to take action concerning anti-Semitism within its members but also said cases of it had been few. Read full
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