Anti-Semitic crime in London second highest in UK behind Manchester

Thursday, February 2, 2012
8:16 AM

London had the second highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK last year, a Jewish charity said today.

The capital was only behind Manchester for the number of recorded incidents.

The total of 586 street attacks, threats, vandalism and desecration of Jewish property in Britain was the fourth highest annual figure since records began in 1984, the Community Security Trust (CST) said.

Some 244 of these were in Manchester, more than the capital (201 incidents) for the first time, despite London’s Jewish population standing at 149,800 compared with Manchester’s 21,700, the researchers said.

Among the incidents across the UK in 2011 were 92 assaults, including one instance of “extreme violence”, 63 incidents of vandalism, 394 reports of abuse and 29 direct threats.

Mark Gardner, of CST, said: “Anti-Semitism is not the most important feature in British Jewish life, but it remains a serious problem in some parts of society, and retains the potential to worsen significantly in reaction to external events.”