Golders Green Together

14 05 19

In the summer of 2015, HOPE not hate was approached by various Jewish organisations asking for our advice in creating a community-led response to a planned neo-nazi march through Golders Green in London. The march was framed as a protest against the supposed “Jewification” of the area. Golders Green is a diverse suburb, incorporating a large Jewish community.

Together we devised a campaign called Golders Green Together, a positive response to the nazis’ virulent (and antisemitic) hate. Our campaign brought together Jewish community organisations, local synagogues, churches and other faith groups, as well as the local MP and local councillors, plus The Jewish Chronicle and many individual volunteers from the Golders Green area.

Volunteers distributed thousands of leaflets in the local area, letting local residents know they had support from across communities

An initial call out to all faith communities allowed us to take photos sending a strong message of cross-community response. Then we launched a highly-successful Thunderclap campaign online, and produced a community leaflet which our volunteers distributed to countless homes in the area, as well as giving posters to local shops to place in their windows to show support for the campaign.

A local estate agent displays support for the campaign

We spoke to local schools and businesses. Meanwhile, together with the other organisations involved in the campaign, we approached the Met Police, asking to get the march moved out of the area. The week before it was due to take place, the police announced that the march wold become a static demonstration in Whitehall. This made a huge difference to the community, as it avoided a huge amount of disruption and tension, as well as the possible for different groups holding counter-demonstrations, which may have proved tensions themselves.

We celebrated our success on the day before the planned march, when we invited people to ‘dress’ the area in bright gold and green ribbons. We were joined by the late Tessa Jowell MP, local MP Mike Freer, faith leaders, local residents, and even bus drivers, who stopped to tie on a ribbon and give us the thumbs up in support of our celebration.

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