The safety of the Jewish community

The Jewish Community in the UK

The number of people who identify as Jewish in the UK by nation:

• The England and Wales 2021 census, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), found that 271,000 people described their religion as Jewish, representing 0.5% of the population.
• The 2022 Scotland census reported 0.11% of people in Scotland described their religion as Jewish. This figure has not changed significantly over the last decade.
• There is only one active synagogue in Northern Ireland, which is reported to have around 80 members. Accurate data is not available because the census in Northern Ireland does not offer “Judaism” as a choice of religion.

Reports of Jewish safety in the UK during the Israel-Hamas conflict of 2023 to 2025 and in 2026

Reported incidents against Jewish people in the UK have increased during and since the Israel-Hamas conflict of 2023.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research surveyed adult British Jews in 2022 and in 2025 and found that feelings of safety have declined sharply since 2023 and experiences of antisemitism have become more common, especially verbal and online abuse. The survey found that 82% of British Jews now see antisemitism as a “very big” or “fairly big” problem.

The Union of Jewish Students published a report “Time for Change” in March 2026 stating that antisemitism had risen since 2023, and that 23% of students surveyed have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their Jewish religion/ethnicity. The report made several recommendations, including a national counter-extremism strategy with a dedicated focus on campus radicalisation, and awareness training at universities.

Pro-Palestinian marches

Some people from the Jewish community have reported feeling unsafe during the widely-attended pro-Palestinian marches that have regularly taken place in central London and other UK cities. However, other Jewish groups routinely attend these marches to demonstrate their opposition to Israel’s actions, forming a Jewish Bloc, as highlighted by Jewish Voice for Liberation and noted in a parliamentary Early Day Motion in 2025.

Measures of public safety

Police data sources

Incidents of reported hate crime have increased across all religious groups in recent years. However, this has been particularly pronounced in the Jewish and Muslim communities.

There is no single reliable source of hate crime statistics in England and Wales. The two main sources used to record crimes in England and Wales are the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) and the Police Recorded Crimes series. Both have issues.

Crime Survey of England and Wales

The CSEW provides an estimate of crime experienced by individuals, including those not reported to the police. However, it does not cover all crimes which may have a hate crime component. For example, it excludes homicides and crimes that are considered ‘victimless’, such as many public order offences, which account for over half of police-recorded hate crime. Nor does it record crimes directed against those aged under 16.

Police-recorded hate crime is also provided annually, while CSEW hate crime figures combine three annual datasets due to the size of the annual sample.

The CSEW provides data on the proportion of adults by ethnicity and religion who have been the victims of religiously-motivated hate crime. For the first time the 2022/23 to 2024/25 figures provided data for Judaism and Sikhism.

The proportion of all adults that have been victims of religiously motivated hate crime in the 2022/23 to 2024/25 combined dataset is 0.1%.

This has remained unchanged since the 2007/08 and 2008/09 combined dataset.

Muslims in the 2022/23 to 2024/25 combined dataset were most likely to be the victims of religion motivated hate crime, with 0.8% of Muslims reporting having been the victims of such attacks. Jews formed the second most likely religion to have been victims of religiously-motivated hate crime (0.4%).

Police Recorded Crimes series

The recording of religious hate crime in police-recorded crime figures is based on the perceived religious target of the offender. In some cases, more than one religion will be targeted, and in others the actual targeted religion will differ from the intended one.

The data in 2024/25 shows that 44% of religious hate crimes recorded by the police were against Muslims. 29% were anti-Jewish in nature; 11% of offences recorded targeted those of “unknown” faith and 5% were anti-Christian.

Using the 2021 Census population figures for religion in England and Wales, the table below shows religious hate crime rates per 10,000 population for the religion in question in England and Wales in 2024/25.

Metropolitan Police Service hate crime dashboard

According to the 2021 census figures, around 54% of the Jewish population in England and Wales lived in London.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) hate crime dashboard shows the number of monthly antisemitic hate crime offences in London from August 2022 to July 2026. Data from March 2024 is not comparable to previous periods due to a change in counting methodology.

In the 2025/26 financial year, a total of 1,150 anti-Jewish offences were recorded in London, which was 1.7% more than the figure of 1,131 recorded in 2024/25.

In the 2025/26 financial year, 1,457 offences for Islamophobic crime were recorded in London compared with 1,239 crimes in 2024/25, an increase of 17.6%.

Media reports of recent incidents of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community

The BBC has reported the following incidents against the Jewish community in London and Manchester:

• 2 October 2025: Two Jewish people were killed and three left in a serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack outside a synagogue in Manchester. One of the men was killed by a bullet fired by police.
• 23 March 2026: Four Jewish charity-owned ambulances were set on fire in the car park of a synagogue in Golders Green
• 15 April 2026: A brick and two bottles thought to contain petrol were thrown at the Finchley Reform Synagogue in north London
• 17 April 2026: Suspicious items, later found to be non-hazardous, were found near the Israeli Embassy in London.
• 18 April 2026: A bottle containing a type of accelerant was thrown through the window of Kenton United Synagogue in north-west London
• 27 April 2026: A suspected arson attack was carried out at a memorial wall in Golders Green. The wall contained tributes to people killed by the Iranian regime during anti-government protests earlier in 2026, as well as a section to those killed in the 2023 Hamas assault on Israel
• 29 April 2026: Two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, in an attack that police declared as a terrorist incident.

Data gathered by the Community Support Trust

The Community Security Trust (CST) is an organisation that works for the physical protection and defence of British Jews. It also aims to promote research on antisemitism, racism and extremism. Its annual antisemitism incident report includes incidents that don’t constitute a crime.

CST Antisemitic Incidents report 2025

In the Antisemitic Incidents report for 2025 (PDF), the CST reported:

• 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2025, the second-highest total ever reported to CST in a single calendar year. This is an increase of 4% from the 3,556 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded by CST in 2024.
• The three highest annual totals of antisemitic incidents, recorded in 2023, 2025 and 2024 respectively, have all been driven by anti-Jewish reactions to conflict in Israel and the OPTs.
• An average of 308 incidents per month with over 200 recorded in every month in the year. Before October 2023, the CST had only received more than 200 monthly reports of anti-Jewish hate five times, all of which coincided with previous Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

The chart below shows the number of incidents recorded annually by the CST between 2014 and 2025: 

Source: CST, Antisemitism Incidents Report 2025

The CST recorded 1,541 cases of online antisemitism in 2025, the highest for any year and 23% higher than the 1,253 online incidents reported in 2024. These incidents form 42% of the annual overall total, 7 percentage points more than 35% recorded in 2024, and a jump from 22% in 2022.

Of the 1,541 online incidents recorded in 2025, 70% (1,080), were found to be related to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This compares to 42% (897) of the 2,159 offline cases recorded being linked to the conflict in the region.

The totals provided are only indicative and are likely to be much larger as the CST does not trawl the internet looking for online incidents. It will, however, record as a single incident antisemitic abuse which is part of a coordinated campaign targeting certain Jewish individuals or public figures even if it involves multiple tweets, posts and comments on social media.

Comparison 2014 to 2025

The CST provides the number of antisemitic incidents recorded by type annually from 2014 to 2025. The majority of incidents involve abusive behaviour, which accounted for around 83% of all incidents in 2025.

The 2025 report found that incidents of extreme violence are rare (less than 0.5% of all incidents). Incidents of assault as a proportion of antisemitic attacks have declined by around 2 percentage points since 2014 from 7% of all incidents in that year to 5% in 2025.

CST Antisemitic Incidents report January to June 2026

In August 2026, the CST published their Antisemitic Incidents for January to June 2026 report (PDF). Among the top findings:

• CST recorded 1,926 antisemitic incidents across the UK in the first half of 2026, the second-highest total ever reported to CST in the first six months of any year, exceeded only by the 2,019 incidents recorded from January to June 2024.
• This is an increase of 21% from the 1,598 incidents recorded in the first half of 2025. CST recorded 965 incidents in the first six months of 2023, and 823 incidents from January to June 2022.
• The 1,926 antisemitic incidents recorded in the first six months of 2026 is more than the total for the entire year of 2022
• In the six months leading up to 7 October 2023, CST recorded a monthly average of 161 antisemitic incidents per month. In the first six months of 2026, this monthly average was 321 incidents, a 99% increase from that earlier period. 
• The sustained level of antisemitic incidents reported to CST in the first half of 2026 – and the rise in monthly totals from March onwards – occurred in the context of US/Israeli conflict in Iran, which began on 28 February.
• CST recorded 135 incidents as assault in the first six months of 2026, an increase of 82% from 74 incidents of this type reported in the first half of 2025 and the highest ever six-monthly total in this category.
• Taken together with the single case of extreme violence (the Golders Green knife attack on 29 April 2026), physical attacks on Jewish people constitute 7% of the six-monthly total, compared to 4% in the corresponding period in 2025.
• The impact of the conflict in the OPTs and Israel is evident in 787 antisemitic incidents – 41% of the total for six months – which referenced or were linked to it. Each of these cases also showed evidence of anti-Jewish language, motivation or targeting.
• Of the 1,926 instances of antisemitism reported to CST in the first half of 2026, 420 (22%) referenced Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust, and/or punctuated their abuse with a Nazi salute, the depiction of a swastika, or other related imagery. This is a decrease of 18% from the 511 incidents using this rhetoric in the first half of 2025, which comprised 32% of the January-to-June total.

Stakeholder commentary

On 5 May 2026, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council wrote an open letter to government calling for immediate steps to be taken to protect the Jewish community. These included greater funding for policing and the Jewish Community Protective Security (JCPS) grant; proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG); and more effective prosecution of those responsible for inciting hatred against Jews.

Political response

Increases in funding

Increases to the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant

The Community Security Trust (CST) manages the Jewish Community Protective Security (JCPS) grant on behalf of the Home Office. The JCPS grant funds security measures such as personnel and equipment for Jewish communities and institutions, with £18 million granted per year for 2024 to 2028.

Following the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester in October 2025, the government announced an emergency £10 million increase to the JCPS grant “dedicated to paying for more security staff and equipment around Jewish sites, such as CCTV, alarms and floodlights”.

A further £4 million of government funding for the JCPS grant was announced on 30 April 2026 as part of the £25 million commitment made after the Golders Green attacks, bringing the total funding for the grant to £32.4 million for 2026/27.

The JCPS grant is allocated and awarded by the CST directly, with priority given, in descending order, to Jewish schools, synagogues, and other Jewish community sites and locations. According to their website:

CST assesses the security of all potential recipients, and then works with locations to ensure that the guarding is appropriate.

This Commons Library briefing provides more information about funding for places of worship.

Additional funding for police in England and Wales to tackle antisemitism:

On 14 July 2026, the Minister for Policing and Crime Sarah Jones announced a record amount of additional funding of £251.1 million for the police to tackle antisemitism in communities in England and Wales over the next three years. This funding is to be distributed to police forces to establish:

• a recognisable, permanent policing presence in key Jewish communities across the country;
• a national surge capacity to ensure all Jewish communities, wherever they live, can be protected;
• stronger national co-ordination and specialised capabilities to deliver a consistent approach, with specified funding to deliver antisemitism training for all police officers in England and Wales and a centralised online hate crime investigations hub; and
• additional protective security and other capabilities to be deployed by counter terrorism policing, in recognition of the threat from state actors and proxies to Jewish communities.

This funding builds on the government’s £25 million fund to provide immediate protection for Jewish communities which was announced on 30 April 2026 [by Dan Jarvis on Times Radio].

Scottish Government funding

The Scottish Government provides yearly funding to the Jewish Council of Scotland (previously Scottish Council of Jewish Communities) to help support those who have experienced antisemitism or are concerned by reported increases in such behaviour. In 2023/24 this funding was £50,000. The Scottish Government provided an additional one-off grant in 2024 to 2025 in recognition of the growing demand for services from the Council. For the year ending 31 December 2024, the Jewish Council of Scotland reported a total income of £123,339.

National security measures

A matter of national security?

In April 2026, the government’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall KC said that attacks on Jewish people in the UK are “the biggest national security emergency” in almost a decade. However, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the attacks do not meet the strict definition of a national emergency.

National security measures imposed on foreign groups linked to antisemitic acts

On 13 July 2026, the government stated that the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities. The Home Secretary set out plans to designate the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under the National Security Act 2023, as amended by the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026. On 16 July, parliament approved the designation of these bodies: The National Security Act 2023 (Designated Bodies) Regulations 2026 – Explanatory Memorandum.

The new designation scheme under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026 (which received Royal Assent on 8 July 2026) provides law enforcement and the intelligence agencies with an additional tool to disrupt and deter foreign power threat activity, and introduces new criminal offences relating to supporting, assisting, or obtaining material benefit from a designated body.

Updated guidelines for hate crime cases

The CPS has published new guidance on hate crime in May 2026 which it states “is issued against a background of a deeply troubling rise in antisemitic incidents across the country”. The guidance means that prosecutors can rely on less evidence to make charging decisions, greater weight can be given to victim testimony, and disclosure requirements for police are reduced.

Anti-Semitism Working Groups established

The government established a working group including four permanent members to consider government’s approach to antisemitism and make recommendations on the best way to engage Jewish communities, meeting each quarter. In December 2025 the Government said:

The role of the Working Group is to enable government to understand antisemitism and how to tackle it, working across government departments on specific issues and the implementation of any changes.

The Jewish Council of Scotland (previously Scottish Council of Jewish Communities) represents and supports the Jewish population in Scotland. The Council announced the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Combatting Antisemitism and Enhancing Jewish Life in March 2026.

Further information

Government publications and statements

Lord Mann review of antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS and healthcare regulatory system, updated 2 July 2026

Tackling Antisemitism, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) statement, 14 May 2026

Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive, and resilient United Kingdom, MHCLG policy paper, April 2026

Antisemitism: Recent government actions and next steps, MHCLG policy paper, December 2025

Parliamentary publications and debates

Increases in antisemitic offences, House of Commons Library briefing, 8 January 2024

Home Affairs Committee inquiry: Combatting new forms of extremism: Government Response, 11 June 2026

House of Lords debate, Jewish Community in London: Safety, 23 April 2024

Wider stakeholders

Voice of Students 2025/26 – StandWithUs UK Report, 11 May 2026  

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