The Home Secretary announced this week that the UK government will give £13.5 million to provide security for Britain’s Jewish community this year.

Amber Rudd made the announcement at the annual dinner for Community Security Trust, where she said the UK “will continue to listen to the funding needs of the community going forward.”

She showed the desire be free from these threats and sympathised with the Jewish community for having to put up with the presence of security guards. She said, “however friendly and professional security guards are, I’m sure you would prefer to go to your local synagogue or drop your child at school without being greeted by one and this is the future we are all working towards.”

Ms Rudd spoke of the government’s work to challenge extremism from Islamist to the far right. She also emphasised the need for social media companies to speed up the removal of illegal content and demote hateful material in online searches. “It can’t be right that when you type Gena Turgel’s name into search engines, instead of her story of surviving the Holocaust, you can bring up Holocaust denial sites.”

CUFI UK welcomes this much needed funding, especially as Britain experienced the worst year for anti-Semitic attacks on record in 2016.

We pray for the day when the Jewish community can live in peace and security in Britain without the need for security measures, but are thankful that our government is taking these threats seriously.