Race hate threats `tip of iceberg`, warns Charedi volunteer patrols
A breakthrough study has highlighted daily instances where victims are targeted for being Jewish as race and religious abuse crime incidents recorded by police in England and Wales soars.
Oct 13, 2016
By Nick Hudson
A breakthrough study has highlighted daily instances where victims are targeted for being Jewish as race and religious abuse crime incidents recorded by police in England and Wales soars.
And the volunteer neighbourhood watch group, which patrols the area of north-east London with the largest Charedi population in Europe, claims its new data is only the tip of the iceberg.
The Stamford Hill Shomrim, which compiled the report with the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, revealed six per cent of incidents involved threats to kill.
It said it had received a total of 32 anti-Semitic incidents over a month-long period with the overwhelming majority 56 per cent involving verbal abuse of community members.
Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of Stamford Hill Shomrim, said: It has long been said that anti-Semitism is under-reported in the Charedi community, which is the most visible segment of the Jewish community, but these figures are nevertheless shocking, even more so since this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Shomrim said it was the first time it had recorded incidents in such detail and has passed on the information to the MPS.
Some of the most disturbing incidents involved boys. In one, an eight-year-old boy in Haringey was assaulted by a man who told him he was a stupid Jew before the child ran home crying.
Women have also been targeted. A 55-year-old woman in Hackney was asked while praying on the Jewish New Year if she covered her hair because Hitler had shaved it off. The offender made a Nazi salute.
In another incident, three Jewish women in Hackney were chased by teenage girls shouting the Jewish people are rich, horrible Jewish people, give us your money.
Most of the suspects were adult males, but nearly a fifth were children under 18. A fifth of the alleged perpetrators were reported to be white, a quarter black and a third Asian.
Gideon Falter, the chairman of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: Members of the Jewish Charedi community, including very young children, are being singled out and targeted for racist assaults and abuse. Under-reporting of anti-Semitism is largely due to the perception that nothing will be done, and that is why the work of Shomrim is so important.
Mark Gardner, director of communications for the Community Security Trust, said: Last year we recorded over 160 examples of visibly Jewish members of the public suffering anti-semitic incidents, so there is no doubt that this problem needs addressing.
Shomrim has an international reputation with many residents calling the volunteer `force` prior to the police due to a perceived faster response time.
The volunteer patrols, which are active in Brooklyn and Baltimore in the US as well as London, have been criticised by the New York City Police Department for not always notifying officers when a call comes in.
But Hackney Police Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne complimented Shomrim on this point, saying that “they will generally know when is the time to call us. They don`t tend to waste our time and they don`t let people go”.
The Shomrim study comes as latest Home Office figures show a massive spike in race hate crime recording up 41 per cent in the month after the UK voted to quit the EU.
There were 3,886 such crimes logged in July 2015, rising to 5,468 in July this year.
The sharp increase declined in August but has “remained at a higher level than prior to the EU referendum”, according to the Home Office.
The number of hate crimes overall in the year
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