Fears about antisemitism rise in U.K

Manchester, England – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was shocked by Thursday’s terrorist attack on Manchester’s synagogue during Yom Kippour, the most sacred day on the Hebrew calendar.

But for many British Jews, it was anything but a shock, rather the culmination of a wave of anti -Semitism in Great Britain which increased before the terrorist attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the military assault of Israel on Gaza – and has only been intensified since.

There was an increase in anti-Jewish hostility in Great Britain which predates the attack in Israel and the Gaza War which began three years ago, according to community groups and people suffering from first-hand effects in the United Kingdom. But the incident of the synagogue of the Heabraic Congregation of Heaton Park in Crumpsall once again highlighted the question of anti -Semitism – leaving many Jews in Britain worried about the security of their friends and family.

“I continue to think of my children,” said Josh Simons, a deputy who represents the district of Makerfield near Manchester, and whose family fled in Europe for the relative security of England about a century ago. “I have two young children and I think everyone in this community will hold their children this evening a little closer.”

He told NBC News on Thursday that the community felt “frightened, frightened and injured”.

Two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed during the attack on the synagogue.

The Grand Manchester police said on Friday that one of them had an injury while armed police were trying to shoot the striker, Jihad Al-Shamie, who went to a group of people before stabbing a man. Al-Shamia had no firearm. But for many in the Jewish community, the attack, which also made three injured people, was the culmination of something that has been betting for some time.

“It is the day we hoped that we would never see, but which, basically, we knew, would come,” said the British chief, the British rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, in a press release. “For so long, we attended an implacable vague of Jewish hatred in our streets, on campuses, on social networks and elsewhere-it is the tragic result,” he added.

Since Israel launched its military offensive following terrorist attacks led by Hamas against the country, there has been a peak in anti-Semitic incidents in Great Britain, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that coordinates security measures in Jewish institutions and follows this data. The group defines anti -Semitism as “hatred, fanaticism, prejudices or discrimination against the Jews”, on its website.

That year, 2023, saw 4,103 anti -Semitic incidents reported to the CST – the most recorded – and the 3,528 of last year were the second highest. The swastikas and other graffiti were due to synagogues and other sites, and security has been reinforced in Jewish schools.

In the space of a week last month, urine and excrement were coated with seven synagogues and a children’s crèche in Golders Green, part of northern London known for its large Jewish population. “These repeated attacks have left our anxious, injured and increasingly worried community,” said a spokesperson for the local group of the Shomrim community at the time.

In May, a company belonging to Jews at Stamford Hill Voisine, which has a large Orthodox Jewish community, was due to red paint and had its windows kiss. Graffiti allegedly alleged that the company had links with an Israeli weapons manufacturer, but the traumatized staff said that was not the case.

“There is no doubt that the number of attacks has increased since the Gaza conflict,” Graham Stringer, another deputy in the Blackley and Middleton service, said another district close to Manchester, in an interview on Friday. “The Jewish community was angry and frightened and therefore, incidentally, to the Muslim community.”

There has been an increase in crimes of targeted religious hatred against Muslims since the start of the conflict of Israel-Hamas, with 3,866 offenses of the year preceding March 2024, according to the latest government data. This increased by 13%, compared to 3,432 recorded the previous year, the data showed.

This is perhaps why the 2025 Jewish landscape report, an annual global survey, revealed that 81% of respondents in Great Britain felt the need to hide their Judeity in public.

In a feverish atmosphere, Starmer is now under pressure to reassure British Jews – who represent only 290,000 of 70 million British people, according to the last census in 2021 – which they are safe.

He said Thursday that he would do “everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve, starting with a more visible police presence, protecting your community”.

The need was obvious a few hours after the incident in Manchester, when two cars passed in front of the scene displaying Palestinian flags, while some men in hoods could be heard whispering on the “Jews”, according to a journalist from Reuters on the scene.

Other observers have been dismayed to see Pro-Palestinian steps continue Thursday evening in Manchester, London and other cities.

There have been steps and regular demonstrations in cities across the country on the conduct of Israel during the war, which will enter its third year on Tuesday. Among the crowds, which contained in the tens of thousands, there were manifestations of violent anti-Semitic feeling, as well as a language which confuses enmity towards Israel, Zionism and the Jews themselves.

Friday, demonstrators said they supported an urgent cause, in particular the aid flotilla that had been intercepted by the Israeli army on the way to Gaza.

But for others – both inside and outside the Jewish community – it was disappointing not to have a break in demonstrations which have often been interpreted as hostile by British Jews.

“I think that continuing in this way does not feel non-British, it hurts,” the secretary of house Shabana Mahmood told the BBC. “It is important to draw a line between what is happening in the Middle East and what is happening at home.”