https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12622241/TV-judge-Rob-Rinder-reveals-Jewish-mother-doesnt-feel-safe-Britain-Hamas-attack-Israel-says-young-nephews-school-risk-not-come-home-amid-surge-anti-Semitism.htmlTV judge Rob Rinder reveals his Jewish mother doesn't feel safe in Britain after Hamas attack on Israel and says his young nephews go to school 'under risk and might not come home' amid surge in anti-Semitism
READ MORE: Judge Robert Rinder lights a candle for Holocaust Memorial Day
By Katherine Lawton
Published: 09:51, 12 October 2023 | Updated: 10:17, 12 October 2023
Rob Rinder today revealed his Jewish mother does not feel safe in Britain after the Hamas attack on Israel. The TV judge also told Good Morning Britain that his young nephews go to school 'under risk' and may 'not come home' as he fears for the safety of all Jewish people across the country. It comes amid fears of a surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes in Britain after Hamas terrorists slaughtered innocent Israeli civilians at the weekend and Israel starting bombing Gaza in retaliation.mmRinder was born into a Jewish family and received an MBE in 2021 along with his mother Angela Cohen in recognition of their services to Holocaust education. He learned how seven of his relatives were slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps in the Second World War while delving into his family history on a 2018 episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? Speaking to GMB, he said: 'My mum is sitting there saying she feels unsafe there's less than 270,000 Jews in this country, and my nephew, kids as young as seven, are going to school today and they do so under risk. There's a chance they're going to not come home. Sending your kids to school shouldn't be an act of courage that's the life-lived experience of Jewish kids just going to school. And of shop owners in London and in other cities, we've got a lived memory of that of what that means not to be safe because of your religion, because of being Jewish.'
He added: 'It's personal for me but it should be personal for every person, whoever you are, up and down the country. It's worth remembering when you think about how you're going to respond today. I was at a vigil outside Downing Street. What happened at that vigil was that there way no chanting, no happiness, there was prayer for peace, for every singe human life, every single human life that has value. Whatever happens in the Middle East should have no impact on the safety of our communities - and its your job whoever you are to stand alongside us because we need you.'
He added: 'Be mindful of that is what I'd say before you post.'
Rinder made an emotional plea to social media users to 'think carefully' before they post following the death of two of his friends in Israel. Speaking to Sky News at the Attitude Awards in London on Wednesday, Rinder said: 'Be kind, read and educate yourself and think carefully before you post (on social media).mm'Kindness requires thought, it requires hope, it requires you to try and be as mindful as possible, as you can have to learn a little bit and we invite that from other communities and that's true of the Jewish community as well. Right now, our Jewish community, many of my friends, my kids who I taught, I've got friends who were killed at that dance party, for example, a couple who planned to get married, two women in Israel, they spent their lives trying to work and campaign for peace and they're gone tonight.'
Supernova music festival in the desert near Kibbutz Re'im was invaded by Hamas gunmen and hundreds of attendees were killed. Rinder took a pause during the interview as he appeared to break down and look tearful and upset before, saying: 'Hamas doesn't speak for the people of Palestine, it does not speak for the people of Gaza, it's a tragedy and a horror for what might befall them, but be mindful of the Jewish community tonight. Thousands of people have died, many of whom are working for justice, for freedom, for the people who celebrate this so joyously, remember them too and don't ask them questions about whataboutery, they don't deserve that. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It's one that hates gay people. They do not speak of or by for the good people of the world, remember that when you post, be mindful. Remember all human life is a value and we as a Jewish community, just like the LGBT+ community, need you, we need you more than ever and be an ally, and think, and be kind.'
Judge Rinder gave a talk to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at Exeter Cathedral in Devon in January. The TV personality also lit a candle in remembrance of the six million Jews who were killed in the atrocity. The UK's Holocaust Memorial Day was first held on January 27, 2001 and has been held on the same day every year since. The date is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945. Upon receiving his MBE, Rinder said it was 'a gift to share this with my mum who has taught me always to see the best in humankind.'
In 2020, Rinder made the documentary My Family, The Holocaust and Me in which he and his mother explored Jewish families' stories and speak in schools alongside survivors. Some three million viewers watched the documentary, which follows second and third generations of three families affected by the Holocaust. The TV judge was told how his great-grandparents and five of their children were killed in the Holocaust, with his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, the only member of the family to survive the war. The star discovered how Morris' parents, his four sisters and his brother all died at the Treblinka Camp in Poland in 1940, six months after war was declared.
