UK’s King Charles will be patron for major Jewish security organization

Community Security Trust, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews, announces monarch’s support a day after arson attack in London targeted a Jewish group’s ambulances

By Reuters 24 March 2026, 6:26 pm

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Britain's King Charles III wears a kippah during a visit to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 20, 2025. (Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP)

Britain’s King Charles III has agreed to become the patron of one of the country’s largest Jewish charities, it said on Tuesday, a day after a suspected antisemitic arson attack in north London.

The Community Security Trust, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said the king had accepted its invitation to be its patron, reflecting the monarch’s “longstanding commitment to promoting tolerance, inclusion and interfaith understanding.”

The patronage was not a direct response to the arson attack and Charles, who is titular head of the Church of England, has a long history of meeting with different faith leaders and promoting interfaith dialogue.

Buckingham Palace had no comment on Tuesday.

Last year, Charles visited a synagogue in northern England following an attack on Yom Kippur that left two Jewish worshipers dead. He said at the time he was “deeply shocked and saddened” and met some of those who had been inside when it took place.

In the early hours of Monday, four ambulances belonging to a Jewish community’s organization were set on fire in an attack which UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said was “deeply shocking.” Police are investigating a possible link to Iran.

This aerial image shows burnt-out ambulances in a parking area along a street in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London on March 23, 2026, after the volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organization were set on fire overnight. (Henry NICHOLLS / AFP)

Antisemitic incidents worldwide have soared since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked war in Gaza. That year, 2024, and 2025 were the UK’s three worst years on record in terms of antisemitic hate crimes, according to CST.

“It is too early for me to attribute last night’s attack in Golders Green to the Iranian state… but whoever was responsible, the impact is serious,” London police chief Mark Rowley told the CST’s annual dinner on Monday.

He said counterterrorism police were looking into an online claim of responsibility by an Islamist group, which has said it was responsible for other attacks across Europe and has Iranian state links.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.