‘You F—king Jew, I Will Kill You!’ Antisemitic Hate Crimes Surge in London, Reach Record High
Suspects allegedly involved in an antisemitic assault in London, on Dec 7, 2023. Source: Shomrim (Stamford Hill)
A torrent of antisemitic hate crimes is continuing unabated in London, as the city has experienced a record number of such incidents this year, exacerbated by a massive uptick following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
According to an Algemeiner review of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) data, antisemitic offenses in London increased 162 percent in 2023 through November, with 1,442 incidents eclipsing the full-year totals of 550 in 2022 and 845 in 2021. The MPS began issuing public data on the city’s anti-Jewish offenses in 2018.
Antisemitic hate crimes in London were already on pace to exceed last year’s figures before the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, which led to a global surge in antisemitic outrages. Between January and September, the MPS recorded 487 incidents. In October and November, city police record a staggering 955 hate crimes targeting Jews — twice as many as occurred in the first three-fourths of the year.
Orthodox Jews in the Stamford Hill section of the city have been targeted disproportionately for being visibly Jewish, as shown in a spate of incidents reported by Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group.
This month alone, an Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, two attackers brutally mauled a Jewish woman, and a group of Jewish children was berated by a woman who screamed “I’ll kill all of you Jews. You are murderers!” A similar incident occurred when a man confronted a Jewish shopper and shouted, “You f—king Jew, I will kill you!”
The antisemitic attacks targeting both people and property have been unrelenting in recent weeks. Days after the Oct. 7 massacre, two Jewish primary schools in Stamford Hill were vandalized and doused with red paint.
Jewish Londoners have experienced an antisemitic crime wave for the past two years, according to a slew of reports. In May, for example, Shomrim reported on a stranger approaching a Jewish woman and shouting, “One day I will kill all you Jews.” Other incidents highlighted by Shomrim include the defacement of a Jewish family’s door and theft of their mezuzah, and a Jewish mother and her infant being verbally abused and spat on, leaving the mother “traumatized and seeking support.”
Last year, a perpetrator in Stamford Hill stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “dirty Jew” before snatching her shopping bag and “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing.” Months earlier, 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 liquid on the baby. That same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f—king Jew.”
Jewish Londoners and allies have responded to the surge in antisemitic hate by showing solidarity. Last month, tens of thousands of people marched through London to protest the rise in anti-Jewish crimes, displaying signs with messages such as “Shoulder to shoulder with British Jews” and “Zero tolerance for antisemites.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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