Eric Pickles. Photo: Wikicommons.

Eric Pickles

British Communities Secretary

The avuncular Communities Secretary in the current British government, Eric Pickles is among the handful of European politicians to have grasped that antisemitism today remains a deadly force. After a record upsurge in hate crimes against British Jews last year, Pickles warned that “there has been a revolting relapse of this ancient evil,” triggered, this time, by a visceral loathing of the State of Israel. Pickles has introduced extra measures to protect the Jewish community, including extra security at schools, a “zero tolerance” approach to expressions of antisemitism on the internet, more Holocaust education, and a new initiative to combat antisemitism on campus.