Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
United Synagogue-run asylum seekers help centre
It’s a bright, sunny winter morning in Woodford Forest, and Kemi, from Nigeria, is talking about how she once regarded Jews.
We are standing in the courtyard of Woodford Forest United Synagogue. Kemi says: “In Nigeria we believed Jews worshipped idols, and that they only dealt with other Jews.”
Now Kemi’s daughter attends Ilford Jewish Primary School, and when a friend remonstrated with her that the little girl would be learning Hebrew, Kemi robustly replied: “So what? it’s good for her to learn another language” adding “I’ve learned that Jewish people don’t discriminate. They listen to us, and they help us.”