British anti-Semitic incidents hit 10-year low

JTA — The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Britain during the first half of 2013 is the lowest it has been in a decade.

The Community Security Trust counted 219 anti-Semitic incidents across the United Kingdom in the first six months of 2013, compared to 311 incidents in the corresponding period last year.

It is “the lowest number of incidents recorded by CST in the first half of a year since 2003, when CST recorded 186 anti-Semitic incidents,” read a report released Thursday by the Jewish community’s security organ.

Of the 219 incidents recorded, 29 were classified as “violent anti-Semitic assaults,” compared to 36 such cases recorded in the first half of 2012. None of the assaults recorded was life-threatening, CST said.

So far in 2013, CST has recorded 19 incidents of damage and desecration of Jewish property, 18 direct anti-Semitic threats, and 151 incidents categorized as abusive behavior.

Four out of every five incidents were recorded in the main Jewish centers of the Greater London and Greater Manchester areas.