Baruch is an NHS doctor whose family arrived in the UK 400 years ago, but is now moving to Israel due to antisemitism.

Baruch, who lives with his wife and children in Golders Green, said that as someone who grew up in London, he never imagined a day would come that he would be scared to walk the streets as a Jew.

“To have that long lineage of a family who came here 400 years ago and now having to leave because on the one hand we want to leave, we love Israel, but also leaving because of antisemitism, is very sad,” he said.

In another part of the interview, Baruch said that some of his fellow doctors at the NHS told him they wouldn’t treat an Israeli patient, even if he was dying.

“It’s very scary to me that I have met doctors who’ve said that they will not, point-blank, treat somebody who has come from certain areas of the world,” Baruch said.

“If they are dying in A&E, I’ve been told by doctors that if they’re from Israel, then they will not treat that person. That to me is disgraceful.”

Baruch added that he has seen Jewish patients being refused kosher meals.

The Jewish Chronicle published a response to the report from the Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson, who said: “These reports are shocking. It is unacceptable that people do not currently feel safe working in and using the health service.

“Recent incidents of antisemitism have drawn stark attention to problems of culture and how racist incidents are addressed.

“This government has been clear that change is needed and that the medical healthcare professional regulatory system is failing to protect Jewish patients and NHS staff. That’s why the prime minister ordered an urgent review, led by Lord Mann, into antisemitism and all forms of racism in the health service. We will use every tool at our disposal to make sure Jewish NHS staff feel safe at work.”

Last month, a Jewish community leader in Bristol said that “life in the UK is starting to resemble Germany in the early 1930s.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)