“The Jewish community has been under siege, and the streets of London are not good for Jewish people right now.” These are the comments of Damon Hoff, the president of the Machzike Hadath synagogue in Golders Green, on whose land four ambulances were destroyed in an antisemitic attack this week.
The ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish charity, were set ablaze in the early hours of Monday morning, shaking a community that is already feeling the effect of rising Jew-hatred.
“People are frightened. I am feeling vulnerable. If you had heard the explosions, it really was terrifying,” Damon told The Guardian. He continued to share how the UK’s Jewish community felt besieged and constantly at the sharp end of events that were inherently global in nature. “I’m aware it is a global set of incidents; it is not just a UK or Jewish community issue. But, at the centre of the issue is the Jewish community.”
He said the site of the attack was recognised locally as the centre of the Golders Green’s Jewish community. “Knock on any door around here and they will know where the Hatzola ambulances are. There is no mincing words – this is an attack on the heart of this community.”
“Allowed a toxic environment towards Jews”
Speaking on GB News this week about the attack, CUFI’s Alastair Kirk said that action is needed, not just words. “A nation that cannot protect its Jews is heading down a very dangerous path,” Alastair told the breakfast show, “We need to get to the root of the problem. We have allowed in this nation an environment of toxicity towards the Jewish people and towards Israel. Jews have been demonised, scapegoated, libelled. Antisemitism is an age-old problem, but it mutes and evolves. We have to look at antisemitism in the present climate. If you cannot define antisemitism, how are you able to tackle it?”
“Also an attack on Britain”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mark Gardner of the CST (the organisation that provides security for the Jewish community) said, “There is a sense of fear around being Jewish…a sense of isolation about the relative lack of reaction to the news of Iranian agents targeting Jews…The position of British Jews has become ever more pressurized. Ambulances being blown up in the middle of the night in London is also an attack on Britain and it is important it is regarded as such.”
Other local residents speak out
Sam Adler, a resident of Golder’s Green, said, “To target the heart of Golders Green is cynical and cowardly, because everyone knows why they have done it. One bit of negative press about Jews just gives them fuel to target us – there is no other reason.”
Jacob Lipton, another local resident, said: “I come from a background where family members were sole survivors from Europe – we have been persecuted for millennia. We don’t want sympathy. You question whether the UK has a future for Jews.”
He said there was no one incident that would lead him to conclude it had none, adding: “We always ask what will happen to make us think we are not welcome here.” Instead, he said, it was an atmosphere of hostility built up over a long time.
Lipton told The Guardian that the actions of the UK’s political leaders had helped exacerbate animosity towards British Jews. He noted that since the 7 October attack in Israel, the Labour party had voted to recognise the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, and the UK government had formally recognised Palestinian statehood as it sought to “protect the viability of a two-state solution”. He said each of these acts had had the effect of intensifying the hatred that was directed towards British Jews.
Hatzola helps both Jews and non-Jews
Both Sam Adler and Damon Hoff stressed that the indiscriminate nature of the attack on Sunday evening, pointing out that the explosions could have hurt Jew and gentile alike. Adler said: “When you target ambulances, you are not targeting the Jewish community, you are targeting the heart of the city. When ambulances become targets, that’s not just criminality, that’s people losing their moral compass.”
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called the deliberate arson attacks “a particularly sickening assault – not only on the Jewish community, but on the values we share as a society. Our Hatzola volunteer ambulance corps is an extraordinary service, whose sole mission is to protect life, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.”
He added, “The targeting of Hatzola by people so committed to terror, hatred and the desecration of life is a most painful illustration of the ongoing battle between those who sanctify life and those who seek to destroy it. At a time when Jewish communities around the world are facing a growing pattern of these violent attacks, we will meet this moment with shared resolve and stand together against hatred and intimidation.”
CUFI launches fundraising campaign for Hatzolah
CUFI stands in solidarity with Britain’s Jewish community following the horrific antisemitic arson attack. It is incumbent upon Christians in this nation to take action. We would like to demonstrate that Jews in this country are not alone. We want to comfort the Jewish people at this time, especially because we know that this attack is certainly not an isolated incident.
CUFI has set up a fundraising campaign to make a contribution to Hatzola’s restoration. Our aim is to show this fantastic voluntary organisation, and the wider Jewish community, that Christians stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them. By giving through CUFI, your donation will form a collective donation that we will be making to Hatzola to demonstrate this Christian support. So, please give today.
