UK: 'Scared' Brits in property rush to Israel

Diaspora Jews are scrambling to buy safe-haven homes in Israel, according to property experts.

"People say: you never know," said property consultant Rebecca Wolman, who works with the British market and has experienced a massive increase in interest since the summer. The size of the spike in enquiries is "impossible to count because it is so huge".

Ms Wolman, who works for the Tel Aviv-based advisory company Home to Home, said that she has become used to encountering families who want a second home to bolster their connection to Israel and their children's Jewish identity.

Before, "antisemitism was never in the vocabulary", but now "there is a pattern in what people are saying: 'we don't feel safe in England any more'."

She stressed that they do not emit "panic" as French Jews do, but are keen to acquire a holiday property which could, in the future, become their first home.

Both the religious and non-religious approach her, and there are people who are "most definitely secular and who didn't have much of a connection to Israel before".

Anat Riesenberg, who heads the Netanya branch of the Anglo-Saxon brokerage, reports a spike in interest from diaspora Jewish centres, including the UK. She estimated that interest is a third higher than this time last year. "It's patriotism and the increased antisemitism," she said. She said that there was a similar rise in sales after the last Gaza war in 2012.

Source: Jewish Chronicle