The number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the UK has increased by more than 50% according to figures released Thursday.
There were 473 recorded incidents between January and June this year, a 53% increase on 2014, said the Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain’s Jewish community on security. Incidents included 44 violent assaults and two involving “extreme violence” with figures more than doubling in both London and Manchester.
CST chief executive David Delew welcomed increases in crime reporting, but said the figures caused “anxiety”.
There were 35 instances of damage and desecration of Jewish property, and 88 cases of abuse or threats on social media, according to the report. One third were said to be random, spontaneous acts of verbal abuse directed at Jewish people in public.
Separate figures, released by individual UK police forces, showed 459 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded by the Metropolitan Police in London in 2014/15, up from 193 in 2013/14.
In February, the CST said the number of incidents in Britain had risen to a record level in 2014, echoing a worldwide trend found by a study for Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Centre for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry.
The figures come after a number of terrorist attacks in Europe. A Kosher supermarket was targeted in the Paris attacks in January, while the following month a Jewish man was killed near the main synagogue in Copenhagen.
“The terrorist attacks on European Jews earlier this year, following the high levels of anti-Semitism in 2014, were a difficult and unsettling experience for our Jewish community,” said CST Chief Executive David Delew.
“We welcome the apparent increase in reporting of anti-Semitic incidents but regret the concern and anxiety about anti-Semitism that this reflects.”
Last year’s rise in anti-Semitism prompted Christians United for Israel UK to launch a campaign against anti-Semitism in June. These latest figures show how important it is for Christians to continue supporting the Jewish community by making a stand against this hatred.
CUFI – UK
