A British expat living in Israel has described how antisemitic hostility is becoming normalized across the UK, recounting an incident where he was violently attacked at a Manchester pub last September.
Chaim Frankenhuis, originally from Manchester and now based in Israel, detailed his experience to an interviewer while warning that growing indifference among Britons is allowing antisemitism to escalate unchecked. During their conversation, Frankenhuis recounted how he returned to Manchester for a holiday and went to his local pub wearing only a kippah. He was quickly singled out by a middle-aged woman who demanded his views on “free Palestine” and accused him of supporting “genocide.”
When Frankenhuis attempted to defuse the situation by explaining that a pub is not the place for political debate, the confrontation escalated. The woman took his pint and threw it in his face before fleeing. According to Frankenhuis, pub staff were reluctant to intervene or provide CCTV footage. He reported the incident to police and contacted organizations monitoring antisemitism in England, emphasizing that the issue was not about the beer thrown but what it represented: “If you don’t deal with something like this, it will become something way bigger.”
Four days later, while Frankenhuis was observing Yom Kippur in Israel, two Jews were murdered in a Manchester council area just miles from where his pub assault occurred. He described the killings as ideologically driven, not politically motivated: “They wanted to kill Jews for being Jewish.”
Frankenhuis issued a stark warning to apathetic Britons: ignoring antisemitism today does not mean you will be spared tomorrow.
