‘You Are Vermin’: London’s Orthodox Jews Targeted in Latest Wave of Antisemitic Hate Crimes

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in London has arrested a Tik Tok user who filmed himself staging a series of menacing pranks against the Orthodox Jewish community.

According to Shomrim Stamford Hill, a Jewish community defense group, the 18 year old male went on a “1 man hate spree,” blocking a car being driven by an Orthodox Jewish man, jumping on the back of a Jewish teenager, and faking a robbery on a Jewish man whom he accosted and told, “you’re under arrest, give me what you have.” He also filmed himself wearing a fedora while saying, “Guys, I’m a f***king Jew.”

The male was arrested on Wednesday and in is police custody.

In another incident that took place on a Transportation for London (TFL) bus, a “deranged male” verbally abused a Jewish mother and her three-year-old child, calling them “vermin” and “bad people.”

“TFL bus driver sadly took no action,” Shomrim said.

A group known as the “Web Estate Gang” has also been harassing a Jewish family for several months, the group reported in another update. The group of men has stolen a bicycle belonging to them, pounded on their windows and doors, and trespassed on their property.

A total of 3,211 antisemitic hate crimes have been recorded in London since 2018, with incidents peaking in 2021, when there were 853. In Dec., incidents, of which there were 44, rose slightly from the preceding month, when there were 43.

The new year has already witnessed a fresh wave of attacks on the Orthodox Jewish community in London, one of the largest in Europe. On Jan. 3, Shomrim, reported that a man entered a Jewish bakery and attempted to assault a Jewish woman after asking, “Are you Jewish?”

Such crimes represented a persistent threat to quality of life throughout 2022, according to community groups.

In December, a man in the Stamford Hill stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “Dirty Jew,” and then snatched her shopping bag, “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing.”

In August, a woman wielding a wooden stick approached a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declared “I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her.The next day, the same woman — described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist” — chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying a liquid on the baby, and that same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f****** Jew.”

Convictions of those who commit antisemitic hate crimes are scarce, with “too few cases” being brought before the courts, Dave Rich, Head of Policy at Community Security Trust (CST) wrote last February.

“The wheels of justice seem to be stuck,” he added.

Follow reporter Dion J. Pierre at @DionJPierre.