LONDON – On May 10, the Jews of the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to express their desperation, frustration, fear, and anger in the face of the unbearable explosion of antisemitism that they are facing. After the recent sharp surge in attacks against Jewish institutions, mainly in London, as well as in other parts of Britain, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) organization is calling for Britain’s March Against Antisemitism and Extremism in the center of London.
Over the last few weeks alone, there has been a disturbing increase in attacks on Jewish sites, such as an arson attack on Hatzolah ambulances parked outside a synagogue in Golders Green; an attempted firebombing of Finchley Reform Synagogue; an arson attack using an accelerant thrown into the Kenton United Synagogue; attempted arson at a Jewish charity building in Hendon (formerly Jewish Futures); and additional plots and attacks against Jewish community venues and a Jewish-owned business in Watford, just north of London, forming a clear pattern of coordinated violence against synagogues, communal institutions, and even emergency medical services.
“We’ve had enough,” said the CAA in a recent public statement. “Britain has been radicalized. The time for reassurances is over. We must march to save the decent Britain that we love.” The march will also be a test for British society at large and its readiness to protect one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. A test for which many in the Jewish community feel that the British institutions have completely failed.
'A front row seat for the fall of civilization'
GIDEON FALTER co-founded Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2014, after the wave of antisemitic demonstrations and attacks that followed Operation Protective Edge. “In a way,” he said, “it feels like I booked a front row seat for the fall of civilization.” Falter, the chief executive of CAA, reflected on his experience over the past 12 years. “In the work that we do, we see at every level within society how institutions are functioning, what is happening to public opinion, especially among young people, and we get a very clear picture of the situation. We can see things going wrong long before they really do so on a larger scale.
“When we started our work in 2014, it was in response to two-tier policing failure to tackle extremism and growing radicalization in the population,” said Falter. “We later had the Jeremy Corbyn years at the leadership of the Labour Party, the 2021 Gaza war, and then Oct. 7. At each of these points, we saw the realization of problems we had predicted 10 years in advance. The trend now is that if action is not taken urgently, there will be more extremists in this country with an inclination to violence than the security forces could possibly keep track of or address.
“Britain will become a place where there is an intifada,” foresees Falter. “Most British people grow up with a great faith in our institutions. Britain is a country that gave the world the rule of law. It is a country that is by nature deeply tolerant, decent, and law-abiding. For hundreds of years, it has been the case that if you broke the rules in Britain, the rules were enforced against you. All of the institutions that British people grew up believing would defend their values are now failing. Appeasement is becoming the dominant political doctrine in the UK.
“If you have the option of taking action against a large group of people who pose an extreme threat or try to silence or remove from the equation a small group of people, which is threatened by them, it is much easier for the system to act against the small group either by ignoring it or arresting it, just to get it out of the way.”
Falter offered a stark warning: “The Jewish community is the canary in the coal mine. When societies forget what they stand for, Jews are the first to suffer.”
OVER TWO years ago, Evelyn (last name withheld for privacy reasons) decided to move from the United States to Britain to study biology. Half American and half British, she left Washington, DC, her birthplace, for London, where she enrolled at the prestigious University College London (UCL). For many students, studying abroad is a formative and often liberating experience. For Evelyn, it became something very different.
Evelyn is Jewish and a proud Zionist. Within months of arriving in Britain, she said, she encountered a level of hostility she had never experienced before. For the first time in her life, she was exposed to persistent antisemitic harassment on campus, much of it coming from fellow students and, in her view, was tolerated or ignored by university authorities.
The almost daily antisemitism Evelyn described is disturbing. “A few weeks ago, we had a stand representing the Friends of Israel Society at the Welcome Fair of the students’ union,” said the 20-year-old. “A student came up to us and told us that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but purely a political movement, and that Oct. 7 was justified and reasonable. I reported this incident to UCL, which initially told me there would be no disciplinary investigation, even though expressing support for Hamas is illegal in the UK. It was only after The Times wrote an article about it that UCL changed its position.”
Attempts to address the issue institutionally have failed. “The university rejected a proposal to introduce education on antisemitism that was offered last year. The provost will make polite statements to the media when he has to. He says antisemitism is not tolerated at UCL, but that is simply not true,” she said.
In some cases, hostility has crossed into physical intimidation. “I was physically escorted off campus because I am not pro-Palestine and because I am Jewish. Security watched it happen and did nothing.” Living under these conditions has taken a toll. “Being Jewish right now feels like living with constant fear at the back of your mind,” Evelyn said. “If things continue as they are, I do not plan on staying here. Regarding antisemitism, I think the UK is declining faster than the US.”
EVELYN’S EXPERIENCE reflects a much wider reality across Britain. According to a report published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), two years after the massacre of Oct. 7, 82% of British Jews see antisemitism as a very or fairly serious problem. In 2012, that figure stood at just 48%.
The report found that 32% of British Jews have personally experienced at least one antisemitic incident. Nearly half of these incidents occurred online, but significant numbers also took place in public spaces, social settings, workplaces, political events, and educational institutions.
In 2025, some 25% of British Jews reported experiencing what the report terms “ambient antisemitism,” described as an overarching atmosphere that feels uncomfortable, isolating, alienating, and at times openly hostile. This represented a sharp rise from the immediate post-Oct. 7 period and an even more dramatic increase from the years before.
Perceptions of personal safety have deteriorated sharply. Some 35% of British Jews rated their sense of safety as very low, compared with 14% four years earlier. Forty-one percent frequently encountered online comments they considered antisemitic. A quarter regularly encountered conspiracy theories about Jews’ alleged negative influence on society, while 21% frequently encountered claims that the Holocaust has been exaggerated.
The JPR report was completed months before the Islamist terror attack on Yom Kippur at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. Two Jews were killed – one by the Syrian-born attacker and another mistakenly by police during the operation. It was the first deadly terrorist attack on a Jewish target in the UK, and it further deepened feelings of vulnerability among British Jews, many of whom began considering emigration for the first time.
CONCERN ABOUT antisemitism is not limited to the Jewish community. A survey conducted by the non-Jewish organization More in Common after the Manchester attack found that six in 10 Britons worry about rising antisemitism linked to the war in Gaza, even though many do not personally know Jews. The wave of antisemitism has not subsided since the US-mediated ceasefire.
The Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2025, the second-highest total ever reported to CST in a single year. This is an increase of 4% from the 3,556 anti-Jewish hate incidents that were recorded by CST in 2024, and 14% lower than the highest ever annual total of 4,298 antisemitic incidents reported in 2023. CST recorded 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022, and 2,261 in 2021.
The increase compared to 2024 reflects that antisemitic incident levels remain at a significantly higher rate than was the case prior to Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In 2025, CST recorded an average of 308 antisemitic incidents per month, exactly double the monthly average of 154 incidents reported in the year preceding Oct. 7. 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 to CST on five occasions, each coinciding with past periods when Israel was at war.
“We have always seen this pattern,” said Dave Rich, director of policy at the CST. “Whenever there is a war involving Israel, particularly in Gaza, there is a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes and antisemitism.
“This time it feels different,” he added. “The conflict has gone on much longer, with two years of saturation in traditional media and on social media. Hostility to Israel, portraying it as absolute evil, creates suspicion toward anyone associated with Israel. This has spilled into parts of society where we had not seen it before.”
Rich noted that antisemitism is now visible in schools, workplaces, cultural institutions, and professional environments. At the same time, Jewish life continues. “Last year, we had over 150 public Hanukkah lightings, even after the atrocities in Sydney. Jewish life has not retreated, but there is anxiety about whether authorities are responding adequately.”
DESPITE THIS climate, aliyah from Britain has not surged dramatically. According to Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Ministry, 840 British Jews moved to Israel in 2025, compared to 700 in 2024. However, the Jewish Agency reports a 70% increase in the number of British Jews who, during 2025, expressed interest in making aliyah. “Since the deadly terrorist attack on the synagogue in Manchester last October, more people have begun questioning whether it is safe to remain,” Rich said.
After the Manchester attack, the UK government announced £10 million in emergency funding for Jewish security. A week later, it announced the same amount for mosques and Muslim faith centers.
“This is delusional,” said Itai Galmudy, co-founder of Stop the Hate. “You compare the explosion of antisemitic attacks to the situation of the Muslim community? Jews are under constant threat. We receive sympathy, but not action.”
Galmudy, an Israeli who moved to the UK in 2014, began organizing protests after Oct. 7. “Ninety-six percent of Jews avoid central London on demonstration days,” he said. “I asked myself whether we are being pushed into a modern ghetto.”
He described a new phase of antisemitism. “Jews are being excluded from public life. Writers, academics, students, artists. Non-apologetic Zionists are canceled. We are now in a situation where antisemitism is not manageable.”
Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, sees danger but also resilience. “This is not the 1930s,” he said. “Antisemitism today comes from the far Left, the far Right, and Islamist extremists. We are at the end of a golden era, but this challenge is global.”
Rich warned that while violent attacks remain relatively rare, the broader cultural environment is shifting in dangerous ways. “We do not have the luxury of only looking in one direction when we are dealing with antisemitism,” he said. “There is no doubt that right now, in terms of physical threat, terrorism from Islamist extremists is the most immediate and lethal danger. But that does not remove the fact that there are also neo-Nazis out there who want to kill us.”
Most antisemitism, Rich noted, does not take the form of violence. “Deadly terrorist attacks are relatively rare. The one we had in Manchester is the first, while other countries have suffered far worse. But the biggest danger on a macro level is that the center ground of liberal democracy is weakening.” As populist movements gain strength on both the Right and the Left, conspiracy theories and scapegoating become more acceptable. “There is always antisemitism in the mix,” Rich said, “and it creates an environment where extremism gains mainstream support.”
This erosion of democratic norms has consequences far beyond the Jewish community. “That is the danger for all Jewish communities,” Rich warned, “but it is also a danger for society as a whole.”
THE SENSE that something fundamental has shifted is shared by activists on the ground. Galmudy described how quickly social exclusion has followed public incitement. “We see a radicalization process within British society that results from the normalization of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli discourse,” he said. “Being antisemitic is no longer seen as a negative thing. You feel it everywhere – on television, on the radio, and in statements by officials and politicians that spread misinformation, lies, and Islamist agendas.”
The Commission on Antisemitism’s report found that antisemitism has “crept into civil society,” affecting workplaces, cultural institutions, and even healthcare. “Many Jewish employees within NHS organizations feel that antisemitism in their workplace is not being addressed,” the report states, adding that in some cases the issue has “simply been swept under the carpet.” The commission also heard evidence that antisemitism has made Jewish patients uneasy about accessing services “that should be taking care of them.”
Wegier urged caution against hysteria: “That does not mean we should panic. It also does not mean we can deny what is happening.” While the average Briton is not antisemitic, he argued, extremist ideologies are becoming more visible and more influential. “This is not unique to the UK,” Wegier added. “You see it across the Jewish world.”
Current polling, Falter noted, paints a bleak picture, particularly among younger generations. “We now have a situation where 21% of the adult population hold entrenched antisemitic views. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, it rises to 40%.”
“WHAT WE are witnessing today across Britain, and increasingly across Europe, is not a temporary spike or an emotional aftershock of a distant conflict. It is a structural crisis,” said Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress.
“Antisemitism has moved from the fringes of society into its mainstream institutions, its cultural spaces, and its public discourse. When Jewish students are harassed on university campuses, when Jewish professionals feel unsafe in their workplaces, and when Jewish families begin to question whether they have a future in countries they have called home for generations, this is no longer a Jewish problem alone. It is a warning sign for Britain and for many European democracies.
“The UK, like many European countries today, stands at a crossroads. If antisemitism is allowed to continue unchecked, it will not stop with Jews. History teaches us that the targeting of Jews is always the first step, never the last. Defending Jewish communities today is not an act of charity but an act of preservation of its democratic values.”
For Gideon Falter, the implications are clear. “We are always the first on the firing line,” he said. “What happens to Jews today is a warning of what may come for others tomorrow.”