“Epidemic of hatred against Jews in the United Kingdom, the worst is yet to come”, the warning from the president of the United Synagogue

“We pray for a speedy recovery of the victims stabbed in the Golders Green neighborhood, in yet another vile anti-Semitic attack. Our thoughts are with them and their families”, said the president of the United Synagogue, the organization that represents the pillar of Jewish religious life in the United Kingdom. Founded by act of Parliament in 1870, it is the largest Jewish religious association in the country, bringing together over sixty central Orthodox congregations with approximately forty thousand members.

Under the spiritual leadership of Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who also serves as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, the institution not only manages synagogues, but provides the fundamental infrastructure of Jewish life, from education in schools to social care services, serving as an authoritative voice for British Jewry in dialogue with institutions. Taylor underlined how, in recent times, the geography of hatred is affecting different symbols of their community life. If before it was mainly places, now it is increasingly people.

“Once again, Jews are being targeted on the streets of the UK simply because they are Jews. This must stop now! The attacks in Heaton Park, the ambulances set on fire at our Hatzola charity, the Reform synagogue in Finchley, the old headquarters of Jewish Futures, the United synagogue in Kenton, and I’m just talking about what has happened over the last few weeks. Now, with the two stabbings in Golders Green the list has grown even longer,” reports Taylor.

This escalation pushed him to call for an institutional intervention of a much different magnitude than in the past. An appeal that was immediately accepted and implemented by Keir Starmer’s Government in record time, so much so that what is happening to the detriment of the British Jewish community is defined as a national emergency. The executive has launched an Action Plan for Social Cohesion which provides significant funding for the security of synagogues and Jewish schools, with an initial fund of 25 million pounds destined to increase up to 58 million this year providing for an increase in the presence of law enforcement in the areas where the Jewish community is most present. In addition to financial support, new rules have been introduced to ban intimidating protests near places of worship and counter-terrorism units tasked with monitoring extremism online and offline have been strengthened.

According to data from the most recent census (taken in 2021 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 2022 for Scotland), the total number of people in the UK who identify as Jewish by religion is around 277,600 with almost half of that, 145,000, in London alone. Saul Taylor also wanted to further explain, with data in hand, what his community has been experiencing for a few years now. “In 2025, the CST, the Community Security Trust, a national organization of ours that specifically deals with the protection of the British Jewish community against anti-Semitism and terrorism, coordinating security measures directly with the Government and police forces, recorded the second highest annual figure ever for anti-Semitic incidents across the country, 3,700, an increase of 4% compared to the 3,556 incidents recorded in 2024. In 2024 alone 2023, the CST had also recorded a higher number, with 4,298 cases of anti-Semitism reported following a huge surge after the events of October 7. And 2026 has started in the worst way in the world and is evolving even worse than we could have imagined.”

“This is an epidemic of anti-Jewish hatred that unfortunately shows no signs of abating. We all have a real feeling that something worse will happen in the space of a few months,” concluded the president of United Synagogue. (by Alessandro Allocca)