British Anti-Semitic Incidents Dip — Still Near Historic High Mark

Image by getty images

By JTA February 4, 2016

The number of anti-Semitic incidents documented last year in Britain was lower by 22 percent than the record figure in 2014, the Jewish community’s security umbrella said.

The Community Security Trust, or CST, counted 924 anti-Semitic incidents in 2015 compared to the 1,179 incidents recorded the previous year, the group wrote in its annual report published Thursday.

Still, the 2015 figure is the third-highest total ever recorded by CST in the more than three decades it has been monitoring anti-Semitism in Britain. The second-highest annual total was 931 incidents in 2009.

Of the 2015 incidents, 86 were violent assaults, 9.3 percent of the total. In 2014, the 81 violent assaults accounted for 6.8 percent of the total. All other categories, including threats and hate speech, also saw a decline in comparison to 2014, which featured Israel’s war in Gaza over the summer.

Of the 85 cases of violence, four were categorized as extreme because they resulted in grievous bodily harm or a threat to life. In one incident, a 17-year-old Jewish teenager was beaten unconscious at a train stop in Manchester.

CST recorded one incident of extreme violence in 2014 and none in 2013.

The “abusive behavior” category in the 2015 report comprised 685 incidents, including verbal abuse, hate mail, graffiti and hate speech on social media.

Another 686 incidents were reported to CST but were not deemed to be anti-Semitic and therefore were not included in the report.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO