Antisemitic Assaults in Britain Soar 82% as Violence Against Jews Hits Six-Month Record

Physical attacks against Jews in Britain surged to their highest six-month level ever recorded as antisemitism remained close to historic highs, according to a new report from the Community Security Trust.

CST documented 1,926 antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom during the first half of the year, a 21% increase from the same period in 2025 and the second-highest January-to-June total on record. The figure exceeded the number recorded during the entire year before Hamas’ October 7 massacre and averaged 321 incidents per month, nearly double the rate before the attack.

Massive Attack play to tens of thousands of people at the low carbon music and art festival Act 1.5 set up by Massive Attack on the 25th of August 2024, Clifton Downs, Bristol, United Kingdom. ACT 1.5 is a festival conceived in response to the ongoing climate crisis designed to minimise fossil fuels emissions usually associated with large events in the music industry. The measures taken to reduce the carbon footprint of the festival are in accordance with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research’s live music road map and in close collaboration with Ecotricity and ZENOBE Energy. The show production is pioneering in all aspects of decarbonisation and will create a blueprint for the way live shows can be produced,” according to 3D, Robert del Naja of Massive Attack. Some of the measures taken to reduce carbon emissions are a ban on private cars near the site, local plant based only food traders, power supplied by giant batteries storing renewable energy generated from sun or wind power and compost loos. (photo by Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)

The sharpest increase came in physical violence. CST recorded 135 antisemitic assaults, up 82% from 74 and the highest six-month total in the category’s history. Combined with the terrorist stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, which was classified as “extreme violence,” Britain saw 136 physical attacks against Jews.

Jewish children and places of worship were increasingly targeted. School-related incidents jumped 59% to a record 178, including 21 physical assaults. Another 117 incidents affected synagogues, their staff and congregants traveling to or from prayers, a 31% increase and another six-month record.

Police stand outside the scene of an antisemitic arson attack in the Golders Green neighbourhood of north London, on March 24, 2026, a day after volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation were set on fire. London’s police chief pledged on March 23 over 250 more officers and “highly visible” armed patrols to protect the Jewish community after an arson attack on four volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation next to a synagogue. (Photo by Henry NICHOLLS / AFP via Getty Images)

The report also documented a spike following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. British authorities say the Iran-linked Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, also known as HAYI, claimed seven attacks on Jewish, Israeli and Persian-language targets, including the burning of four Hatzola ambulances in London. The British government assessed that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force “almost certainly” directed the group’s attacks across Europe.

London accounted for 994 incidents, nearly half of them in Barnet, home to Britain’s largest Jewish community. The government has responded with a £251 million security package that includes hundreds of additional officers, increased counterterrorism resources and antisemitism training for police across England and Wales.

“This is a critical time for the future of British Jews,” CST chief executive Mark Gardner warned.

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Antisemitic Assaults in Britain Soar 82% as Violence Against Jews Hits Six-Month Record