London’s Jewish community has been on edge since Hamas’s attack on Israel earlier this month, with security increased at synagogues, schools and other buildings.
“People feel vulnerable and people feel frightened, and right now the recorded incidents of anti-Semitism are a record,” said Raymond Simonson, chief executive of the JW3 arts, culture and entertainment venue in the north of the UK capital.
“There’s never been this many incidents… in the UK as there have been in the last 20 days,” he told AFP.
“We’ve doubled our security. The Metropolitan Police have quadrupled their visits… to make sure we’re safe. It’s the only way we can do it,” he added. JW3 last Friday set up an installation, “The Empty Shabbat Table”, to keep alive the memory of the more than 200 hostages Israel says were taken by Hamas.
Simonson said the attack made him realise that he had taken for granted the Jewish day of rest, which he has always marked with his family. Around a huge table were more than 200 empty seats, including high chairs, with the name, age and nationality of the captives plus the word “kidnapped”.
Israel says more than 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed after Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border on October 7 in the worst attacks in Israel’s history.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardment since then, 3,457 of them children.
In London, where there have been several large-scale protests in support of Palestinians in Gaza, the Met said it had recorded 408 anti-Semitic offences between October 1 and 27.
That compares to just 28 in the same period last year, the force said on Friday.
At the same time, there have been 174 Islamophobic offences compared to 65 in the same period in 2022, it added.
