Are We Safe? – Anti-Semitic Attacks in UK Hit Second-Highest Level on Record

By FrumNews.com

In the aftermath of the UK’s shift to the left in the 2024 election, in which the Labour Party took over 10 Downing Street. British Jews have been left suffering, literally, as anti-Semitic incidents and attacks have risen to 3,700 in 2025 — and the UK’s political leaders disregarded the warning signs, new data shows.

The Community Security Trust (CST) watchdog group reported that it recorded 3,700 anti-Semitic 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, and 14% lower than the highest-ever annual total of 4,298 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2023. CST recorded 1,662 anti-Semitic incidents in 2022 and 2,261 in 2021.

The year has seen a number of high-profile attacks and incidents, including the deadly terror attack at Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur in Manchester, which resulted in the deaths of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby and left three others seriously injured. This was the first time that an anti-Semitic terror attack in the UK has resulted in the loss of life since CST began recording incidents in 1984.

The annual total reflects that anti-Semitic incident levels remain significantly higher than they were prior to 7 October 2023. CST recorded an average of 308 anti-Semitic incidents per month, exactly double the monthly average of 154 incidents reported in the year preceding Hamas’ attack on Israel. For the first time ever, CST recorded over 200 cases of anti-Jewish hate in every calendar month in 2025. Prior to October 2023, monthly incident totals exceeding 200 had only been reported by CST on five occasions, each coinciding with past periods when Israel was at war.

Other incidents have caught the news, such as when a music venue abruptly canceled a Benny Friedman concert at the last second, or when chants of “Death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury Music Festival were broadcast live by the BBC. And with the return of the Labour Party to 10 Downing Street, which pushed for anti-Israel policies in the UK, the climate doesn’t look bright for the UK’s Jews.

The attacks mirror the anti-Semitism in the rest of the Western world, such as Paris, New York, Toronto and Sydney, which have seen a dramatic rise in hate crimes — and terror attacks — against the Jewish community since teror attack of October 7th.

When Terror Strikes, Incidents Spike

The terror attack in Manchester triggered an immediate spike in anti-Semitism, CST stated. It recorded 40 anti-Semitic incidents on 2 October, the day of the attack, and another 40 the following day, 3 October. These were the two highest daily totals for anti-Semitic incidents in 2025. In the week preceding the attack, CST recorded 64 cases of anti-Jewish hate.

In the following week, CST recorded 181 incidents, an increase of 183% from the previous week. CST recorded 463 instances of anti-Semitism across October, a 65% rise from the 281 incidents in September. This makes October 2025 the highest monthly total in 2025 and the fifth-worst month for anti-Semitism in CST’s records. While CST usually records a small increase in anti-Semitic incidents on Yom Kippur – for example, there were 17 incidents recorded on Yom Kippur in 2024 – this alone cannot explain the much larger spike in incidents on the day of, and days following, the attack.

Of the 80 anti-Semitic incidents recorded across 2 and 3 October, 42 (53%) involved direct reactions to the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue. Three involved face-to-face taunting and celebration of the attack toward Jewish people, while 39 were anti-Semitic social media posts referencing the attack, abusive responses to public condemnations of the attack from Jewish organisations and individuals, or antagonistic emails sent to Jewish people and institutions. As observed in previous years, violent attacks on Jews, whether in Britain, Israel or elsewhere, sometimes generate more anti-Jewish invective from anti-Semites who feel emboldened to express their prejudice.

Similarly, a smaller spike was observed in December in the wake of the Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack at a Chanukah event in Bondi Beach, Australia. This shooting claimed the lives of 15 people who attended the event. CST’s highest daily incident totals for December 2025 fell on 14 December, the day of the attack, with 16 incidents reported, and the two subsequent days, with 19 and 15 incidents recorded respectively. Of these 50 incidents, 21 directly referenced the attack on Bondi Beach – 20 online and one offline – and recycled much of the same anti-Jewish rhetoric observed in incidents reported in the wake of the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue.

The Numbers

CST recorded 170 incidents in the category of Assault, a decrease of 16% from the 202 reported in 2024. These comprise anti-Semitic physical attacks that did not have the intention or potential to cause life-changing or life-threatening injuries. Taken together with the four instances of Extreme Violence, physical attacks on Jewish people constitute 5% of the annual total in 2025, compared to 6% in 2024.

Cases of Damage and Desecration to Jewish property rose by 38%, from 157 in 2024 to 217 in 2025, the highest annual total ever recorded in this category. Sixty-eight of these involved damage to the homes and vehicles of Jewish people, 51 to posters, ribbons and memorials in honour of the hostages captured by Hamas, 25 to synagogues, 20 to the property of Jewish businesses and organisations (including six to public chanukiahs – a candelabra used during the festival of Chanukah), eight to Jewish schools, six to kosher food aisles at supermarkets, and three to Jewish cemeteries.

There were 196 incidents reported to CST in the category of Threats in 2025, which includes direct threats and explicit incitement of violence to people, institutions or property, rather than general abuse containing non-specific threatening language. This is a decrease of 22% from the 251 incidents of this type recorded in 2024.

CST recorded 3,086 reports in the category of Abusive Behaviour in 2025, more than in any other year bar 2023 and a 6% rise from the 2,917 such incidents logged in 2024. This figure eclipses every previous annual figure across all categories with the exception of 2023 and 2024, and forms 83% of all cases of anti-Jewish hate reported to CST in 2025.

There were 27 incidents reported to CST in the category of mass-produced anti-Semitic Literature in 2025, equal to the number of such cases recorded in 2024.

Of the 3,700 anti-Semitic incidents recorded by CST in 2025, 1,977 (53%) referenced, or were linked to, Israel, Palestine, the Hamas terror attack or the subsequent war. Each of these cases also evidenced anti-Jewish language, motivation or targeting. This was true of 52% of the incidents reported in 2024, 43% of those in 2023 and 15% of those in 2022, a year unaffected by a significant trigger event in the region.

CST recorded four incidents that involved Grievous Bodily Harm or threat to life in 2025 (including the fatal attack at Heaton Park Synagogue), meaning that they were severe enough to be categorised as Extreme Violence, double the number recorded in 2024 and more than the total for the previous three years combined. There were an additional 170 cases of anti-Semitic Assault. Taken together with the four reports of Extreme Violence, physical attacks accounted for 5% of all incidents, compared to 6% in 2024. Incidents of Damage & Desecration of Jewish property rose sharply by 38% to a record 217 cases, including attacks on homes, vehicles, synagogues, schools, Jewish businesses and hostage memorials. CST recorded 196 direct anti-Semitic Threats, 27 cases of mass-produced anti-Semitic Literature, and 3,086 instances of Abusive Behaviour. The latter is the widest and most frequently logged category of anti-Jewish hate, accounting for 83% of all anti-Semitic incidents in 2025.

You can read the full report here.