Illustrative: ultra-Orthodox men walking along the street in the Stamford Hill area of London, Jan. 17, 2015. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images via JTA)
Dozens of demonstrators hurled anti-Semitic abuse at Jews in London over the weekend, accusing them of “taking over the world” and mocking their “long noses.”
Chaim Hochhauser, a representative of the Shomrim community protection organization, told The Jewish Chronicle, a local Jewish newspaper, that some 20-30 men verbally assaulted members of the ultra-Orthodox community in London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood on Saturday.
The anti-Semitic “preaching” as he called it, did not lead to any arrests, although police were at the scene.
“It was extremely racist,” Hochhauser told the Chronicle. “We have taken a number of phone calls about it. People are scared – scared that a pogrom could happen to them. There were a lot of Jewish people there. It was Shabbos afternoon so they were coming out of [synagogue].
“Even the non-Jewish people were shocked,” he continued. “This was the first time something like this has happened. The community is shocked. It is extremely shocking – especially for it to happen on Shabbos.”
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The demonstrators, who claimed to be descendants of the biblical Israelites, also called members of the local Jewish community goyim, a derogatory term for non-Jews.
Borough Mayor Philip Glanville said that he was “disgusted by these allegations” and that local municipal officials were “looking to assist where they can, including surveying local CCTV.”
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According to the Community Security Trust, Britain’s primary anti-Semitism watchdog, the first half of 2019 saw a precipitous rise in incidents targeting members of the UK Jewish community.
The group counted a record high total of 892 anti-Semitic incidents during that period. It further said it was the highest number of incidents it had ever recorded in the January-to-June period of any year and is a 10 percent increase from the 810 incidents recorded during the same period in 2018 — itself a record high for a six-month period. There was a record annual total of 1,688 anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in 2018.
Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Britain’s opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism in the Labour party, outside the British Houses of Parliament in central London on March 26, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMEN)
February and March saw the highest levels of anti-Semitism so far this year, which the CST attributed to the prominence of issues related to the British Labour party’s anti-Semitism scandal during those months. In February, a number of Jewish Labour MPs quit the party over claims of anti-Semitism within its ranks.
“When it comes to fighting anti-Semitism, it’s not enough for us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish community, when the anti-Semites are throwing the stones of hatred, of bitterness, of bile,” he said. “We have to stand in front of [Jews] in this fight. This must not be only the responsibility of the Jewish community.”
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