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Spate of anti-Semitic attacks hits London over weekend

Scotland Yard assisting local authorities in search for perpetrators of 3 hate crimes directed at Jews in Edgware area

Illustrative: ultra-Orthodox men walking along the street in the Stamford Hill area of London, Jan. 17, 2015. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images via JTA)
Illustrative: ultra-Orthodox men walking along the street in the Stamford Hill area of London, Jan. 17, 2015. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images via JTA)

British police have opened investigations into a string of attacks against the Jewish community in north London over the weekend.

A volunteer neighborhood watch program told the Jewish Press news site that three separate hate crimes targeting “recognizably Jewish” residents of the Edgware district took place between late Friday and Saturday.

According to Shomrim North West London, the neighborhood watch group, on Friday night one family was pelted with eggs by unidentified assailants in a passing car.

On Saturday morning, a brick daubed with swastikas and other anti-Semitic slurs was hurled though a window of local Jewish family’s home.

Later that day, police discovered a swastika graffitied next to the words “Heil Hitler” and “F*** Jews” on a residential building in the nearby suburb of Mill Hill.

According to British news reports, Scotland Yard was assisting the Barnet police in the investigation into the incidents.

Investigators have been combing though surveillance video footage in an effort to identify perpetrators, and local police have vowed to step up patrols in north London’s predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.

“Whilst there is no evidence at this stage to suggest that these offenses are linked, it is of great concern that members of our local community are being targeted in this way,” Barnet Police Inspector Justin Zitver told the Standard.

Shomrim CEO Gary Ost said members of Shomrim North London were working closely with the police investigations.

“These cowardly antisemitic attacks targeted Jews when they were asleep in their homes or walking with their families after dinner,” Ost said, urging witnesses to come forward to police.

“These attacks are intended to instill fear in London’s Jews,” he added.

“Antisemitic crime is on the rise and these cowardly attacks must lead to arrests and convictions,” said Stephen Silverman, director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism. “Jewish families in our capital should not be living in fear of antisemitic attacks.”

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