The UK’s Community Security Trust (CST) has reported that anti-Semitism in the country is close to a record high, with almost 2,000 incidents recorded in the first six months of 2026, Reuters reports.
One of the most serious attacks took place in April in north London, when two Jews were stabbed in the street. Police are investigating the attack as a terrorist attack. There have also been a series of arson attacks on Jewish synagogues and properties, including the burning of four ambulances belonging to the Jewish Volunteer Service.
According to the CST, there were a total of 1,026 hate crimes against Jews, a 21% increase on the same period last year. This year has seen the second highest number of attacks ever recorded in the same period. The CST provides security advice to Britain’s 280,000 Jews.
The organization said
the number of attacks increased after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February,
and British authorities have accused Tehran of using proxies to carry out attacks in Britain and across Europe. Iran denies involvement in the attacks.
Mark Gardner, chief executive of the CST, said such attacks should be of concern to anyone who cares about Britain and the threats it poses, whether they come from Iran, local Islamists, the far right, the far left or other extreme ideological groups.
The British government announced in early August that it would allocate £250 million over the next three years to better protect Jewish communities, and would deploy more police to protect schools, synagogues and community centers. The government said anti-Semitism was contrary to British values and that it would do everything possible to protect Jewish communities.
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