In a video released Christmas Day on the YouTube channel of the UK’s Channel 4, the British actor and public intellectual Stephen Fry reflected on his Jewish heritage amid a global rise in antisemitism, including in his home country.
After proclaiming his childhood love of Christmastime, the video begins with a reflection by Fry on another identity of his, that as a gay man: “Realizing I was gay,” Fry says, “I saw a long, lonely line of Christmases ahead of me. Exclusion, exile, and disgrace had been, and surely always would be, the fate of the homosexual.
“But look!” he says. “In my short lifetime, Britain has moved toward an understanding and acceptance of gay love,” Fry declares, while hanging a rainbow ornament on a Christmas tree. “It’s not perfect, of course, but what an improvement over the grime culture in which I grew up.”
Then, settling himself in an armchair, surrounded by a fireplace, snowman figurines, and a kettle of tea, Fry addresses the topic at hand: “One truth about myself,” he says, “which I never thought, for one single second, would be an issue about which I had any cause to worry in this country was that I’m a Jew.”“I don’t really identify as Jewish,” Fry says, “any more than I identify as English or British. Then again,” he says, “I know because I’ve been warned that I’ve been on lists of British Jews that some ultra-right-wing newspapers and sites have published over the years, and I’m, frankly, damned if I’ll let antisemites be the ones who define me and take ownership of the word ‘Jew,’ injecting it with their own spiteful venom.”
'I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew.'
“So,” Fry continues, “I accept, and claim that identity with pride. I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew.”
Fry then moves on to the topic at hand: the surge of antisemitic incidents following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war between Israel and the Islamist group: “The horrendous events of October 7 and the Israeli response,” Fry says, “seem to have stirred up this ancient hatred. It’s agonizing to see all the violence and destruction that's unfolding and the terrible loss of life on both sides brings me an overwhelming sadness and heartache.
“But whatever our opinion on what is happening, there can be no excuse for the behavior of some of our citizens. Since October 7, there have been 50 separate reported incidents of antisemitism every single day in London alone– an increase of 1,350% according to the Metropolitan Police.”
Fry goes on to recount some typical incidents, such as the breaking of shop windows, the spray painting of swastikas on Jewish properties, and the closing of Jewish schools due to threats.“My Jewish grandparents loved Britain,” Fry says, “believing the Jews were more welcome here than in most countries. I’m glad they’re not alive now, to read newspaper stories that would have reminded them of the 1930s Europe that they left.”Fry invokes his parents’ belief that “Britishness meant being fair and decent. But what can be more unfair or indecent than race-hatred, whether antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any kind?” He says that his message this Christmas is that we’re all brothers and sisters, ‘naive as that sounds.’And Jews, he adds, “should stand upright and proud in who they are… speaking up and calling out venomous slurs and hateful abuse wherever you encounter them. Knowing and loving this country as I do, I don’t believe that most Britons are okay living in a society that judges hatred of Jews to be the one acceptable form of racism.“So, speak up, stand with us, be proud to be Jewish, or Jew-ish, or, if not Jewish at all, proud to have us as a part of this great nation as any other minority, as any of you. And so, this mad, quintessential, queer English Jew wishes you, whatever your race or creed, however you identify yourself, all peace, joy, and,” – with a final joke – “a very merry Xmas, formerly known as Twittermas.”“And now,” he concludes, “let’s all exhale that great sigh that Jews have sighed for thousands of years – oy.”