The comedian who became an unlikely voice for Britain’s Jews

David Baddiel has attracted widespread praise for his book ‘Jews Don’t Count’ and his online condemnations of antisemitism. But how did a ‘fundamental atheist’ best-known for his sweary stand-up end up a pillar of the community?

LATE LAST MONTH, protesters marched through central London to challenge the U.K.’s coronavirus lockdown measures. It was a small but angry crowd (several police officers were injured), and included several wearing yellow stars and brandishing placards with slogans such as “COVID-19 Vaccine Holocaust.”

It was an arresting image to see on the streets of modern-day Britain, but not one that featured in any of the initial media coverage.

What brought it to wider attention was a social media post by British-Jewish comedian and writer David Baddiel.

“Take. That. Off,” he wrote in a tweet showing a woman wearing a yellow star. He later added: “What I’ve said there does in fact illustrate one of a number of key differences between this woman’s situation and my grandparents in Germany in the 1930s. She has that option.”

The fact that such a shocking demonstration of blatant antisemitism went unreported by the mainstream media does not exemplify how firmly Jew-hatred is embedded in British society. It isn’t.

But it does perfectly illustrate the central premise of Baddiel’s latest book, “Jews Don’t Count,” in which he argues that, especially for otherwise enlightened liberals, anti-Jewish prejudice exists as a kind of lacuna in our modern consciousness of racism.

FULL STORY How comedian David Baddiel became an unlikely voice for Britain’s Jews (Haaretz)

Photo: David Baddiel (Steve Best / Xavicus Media)