{"id":561449,"date":"2026-05-01T23:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561449\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:34:10","slug":"anger-and-despair-among-jewish-britons-after-spate-of-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561449\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger and despair among Jewish Britons after spate of attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Britain in 2026 is a place where Jack Hur doesn\u2019t feel safe<\/a> wearing his Star of David pendant. It\u2019s where some Jewish mothers tell their teenage sons to remove their kippot<\/a> before boarding the tube. It\u2019s where dinner-table talk of leaving the country no longer seems outlandish.<\/p>\n

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Standing behind the counter of Sulam\u2019s Kosher Food Store, Hur, 32, produces his Star of David necklace<\/a> from underneath his sweatshirt. From his back pocket he reveals a kippah. <\/p>\n

\u201cI only wear this sometimes,\u201d he says, unfolding the small, black skullcap. \u201cIt depends where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately for Jews, he said, \u201cBritain just isn\u2019t safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golders Green, a hub for Britain\u2019s tiny Jewish community, feels like a neighborhood under siege. Antisemitism had been surging in the United Kingdom<\/a> since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel and Israel\u2019s subsequent offensive in the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n

There were 3,700 reported antisemitic incidents last year, more than double the number in 2022, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that coordinates security measures at Jewish institutions<\/a> and tracks this data.<\/p>\n

But a spate of attacks against synagogues<\/a> and other Jewish sites in recent weeks has brought that to another level.<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Hur in Golders Green.Alexander Smith \/ NBC News <\/p>\n

This week, two people were stabbed in Golders Green<\/a>. Police have arrested and charged with attempted murder a Somali-born man who in 2020 had been referred to the government\u2019s early prevention counterterrorism program, a case that was closed later that year. Essa Suleiman, 45, appeared in court Friday but did not enter a plea.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police classified it as a terrorist attack, and authorities raised the national threat level from \u201csubstantial\u201d \u2014 indicating an attack<\/a> is likely \u2014 to \u201csevere,\u201d meaning an \u201cattack is highly likely in the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.K. has been experiencing a gradual increase in terrorist threats for some time, driven by a rise in both Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorism<\/a>,\u201d said Laurence Taylor, assistant commissioner and head of counterterrorism at the Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur casework is increasing across a number of ideologies and within that we are seeing an elevated threat<\/a> to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,\u201d he said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, agrees with Hur. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are visibly Jewish, you\u2019re not safe<\/a>,\u201d he told the BBC this week.<\/p>\n

Some of these incidents have been claimed by a new group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, or HAYI, which analysts say<\/a> has links to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. It\u2019s unclear the extent to which HAYI had any involvement in the planning or preparation, or if it is merely piggybacking onto the assaults to gain publicity.<\/p>\n

Either way, this is jolting for many of Britain\u2019s 290,000 Jews, many of whom prided themselves in their unfussy integration into British society. Despite antisemitism, members of the community have played prominent roles, such as Jewish-born Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1868. In the 1930s, more than 10,000 Jewish children gained refuge from Nazi tyranny as part of the \u201cKindertransport\u201d program.<\/p>\n

\"AlvinAlvin Ormonde, left, and Ezra Kahn in Golders Green.Alexander Smith \/ NBC News<\/p>\n

On a warm morning Friday on Golders Green Road, near where the stabbings happened, the mood was less of fear, more anger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was a steady cadence of police cars humming past, as well as officers stationed outside the local London Underground station. For many locals, this was too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019ve been standing here, we\u2019ve had three police vehicles gone by,\u201d said Alvin Ormonde, 75, a local planning consultant whom friends describe as an influential community figure. This was an unusual sight, he said.<\/p>\n

He was chatting with friends beneath a tangled Union Flag, one of several hanging from a lamppost on this wide street flanked by stores interspersed with large, postwar houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a week\u2019s time, the police presence<\/a> will be back to where it was,\u201d said another man, who like many here is distrustful of what he sees as a biased media and declined to give his name.<\/p>\n

Much of the anger is directed at Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who, when visiting Golders Green this week, was heckled by a crowd who chanted \u201cKeir Starmer, Jew-harmer\u201d at him.<\/p>\n

In response to that outpouring of anger<\/a>, the government said Starmer acknowledged fear within the community. The prime minister then issued some of his strongest remarks on the subject yet, calling out the \u201cextreme racism\u201d that had \u201cleft a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents\u2019 main source of anger is what they see as Starmer\u2019s lax approach<\/a> to the near weekly pro-Palestinian marches in London and elsewhere that they characterize as \u201chate marches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some protesters have displayed antisemitic sentiment, and used language that conflates enmity toward Israel, Zionism and Jews themselves. The organizers of the demonstrations deny this accusation, saying their target is merely the Israeli government rather than Jews in Britain or anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\"BritainMembers of the community watch as forensic officers search the area Wednesday after two people were stabbed in the Golders Green neighborhood in London.Kin Cheung \/ AP<\/p>\n

Among NBC News\u2019 conversations in Golders Green, there was an unavoidable thread of animosity toward Muslims<\/a> in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to take over the whole place and chuck everyone out, including the British,\u201d said one man in a dark suit and wearing payot and a kippah on Golders Green Road. Citing a mix of media mistrust and community anxiety, he too declined to give his name. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all refugees,\u201d said Ezra Kahn, 88, after ambling up and joining the conversation. \u201cBut there is a big difference between the refugees we were and the refugees that are coming in by the boatload all the time. We get on with our job, we educate our children to be good citizens and we contribute to taxes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe refugees who are now coming by the boatload<\/a>, they\u2019re coming here and immediately start making trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

It must be said that many Jewish people, including their mainstream leaders, would disavow this, insisting instead on interfaith tolerance and respect. <\/p>\n

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a leading community organization, says on its website that \u201cwe have a long track record of standing with Muslim communities in the fight against anti-Muslim hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a sentiment echoed by many people in Golders Green too.<\/p>\n

Shopkeepers say the roads are quiet for a sunny Friday hours before the Jewish Sabbath.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the stabbing, the arson attacks against synagogues, the firebombing of four Jewish ambulances two months ago; it\u2019s that antisemitic language feels closer to the surface, less hidden in the politeness of British life, than it ever did previously. <\/p>\n

Nigel Farage, the leader of the hard-right populist Reform UK party and a friend of President Donald Trump, has faced his own allegations. More than 30 of his former classmates have accused him of regular antisemitism when he was a schoolboy more than 40 years ago, including singing songs about gassing Jewish people<\/a>. Farage has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on the opposite end of the spectrum, two Green Party candidates have been arrested ahead of local elections next week, accused of posting antisemitic social media posts.<\/p>\n

An idle scroll through any social media feed will reveal violent language against Jewish people that was considered widely unutterable a few years ago.<\/p>\n

The upshot is not only that Jewish Britons feel unsafe. A poll by the Campaign Against Antisemitism last year found that 61% of the community said they had considered leaving Britain altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot be Jewish in Britain today,\u201d said one woman in a long, white summer dress and designer sunglasses, also declining to give her name. \u201cMy friends who have teenage sons tell them to take off their kippot<\/a> before they get on the tube so they are not attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the Beth Shmuel Synagogue, two men sit guarding the premises, both wearing non-religious dress except their kippot, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. This level of security is a depressing necessity in modern-day Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Jewish people will be fine,\u201d one of them said. \u201cWe may have to move to a different country<\/a>, we may get to eat a little less sushi, but it\u2019s nothing we haven\u2019t done before.\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s the regular Brits that will suffer in the long term with what\u2019s happening to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Britain in 2026 is a place where Jack Hur doesn\u2019t feel safe wearing his Star of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-561449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}