String of Antisemitic Attacks in London Prompt Hate Crimes Investigation
A suspect photographed after chasing a London Jewish woman and her baby. Photo: Twitter/Shomrim Stamford Hill.
A series of antisemitic assaults has put the London Jewish community on high alert, with police still searching for a suspect.
On Thursday, according to the Stamford Hill branch of Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood watch group, 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, according to local daily MyLondon, 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.
That same Friday, Shomrim said, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f****** Jew.”
Metropolitan Police told MyLondon that it is investigating the Thursday assault as a hate crime.
In separate episodes reported by Shomrim, a woman was seen threatening Jewish congregants leaving Shabbat services on Friday night, shouting, “f*** you Jews, I will kill you.” Another account described “hundreds of Jewish men and boys” similarly harassed as they returned from synagogue.
In February, Community Security Trust (CST), an antisemitism watchdog, reported that in 2021 it recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents — 2,255 — throughout the UK since it began tracking them in 1984, with 1,254 taking place in London alone.
This year, Metropolitan Police has so far recorded 295 antisemitic hate crimes in London.