Stephen Fry Condemns Antisemitism in Channel 4 Christmas Message, Encourages People to Call Out ‘Venomous Slurs and Hateful Abuse’
variety.comK.J. Yossman Stephen Fry is set to deliver a deeply person Alternative Christmas Message for U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, in which he will address the rising tide of antisemitism across the world.
Calling for solidarity, Fry, who is an atheist and a humanist, urges the audience to call out antisemitism as they would any other form of racism: “Standing upright means speaking up and calling out venomous slurs and hateful abuse wherever you encounter them.” “There is real fear stalking the Jewish neighbourhoods of Britain,” he continues. “Jewish people here are becoming fearful of showing themselves.
In Britain, in 2023. Can you imagine, Jews afraid to be themselves in the open for fear of reprisal?” Fry opens the message, which will air shortly after King Charles III’s annual Christmas speech on the BBC, by publicly proclaiming his own Jewishness, a fact he says many people don’t realize. “Indeed sometimes people rather embarrassingly refer to me as ‘quintessentially English’ whatever that means,” he explains.
Read more on variety.com