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Antisemitic assaults in the United Kingdom reached a record six-month high during the first half of 2026, surging 82% year-over-year.
The Community Security Trust (CST) reported on Wednesday that overall antisemitic incidents climbed 21% to 1,926, the second-highest January-to-June total on record. Only the first half of 2024, following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, was higher.
CST logged 135 incidents in its assault category, a record six-month total. Combined with the Golders Green stabbing, physical attacks on Jews reached 136 incidents, 7% of the half-year total, up from 4% a year earlier. School-related cases rose 59% to 178. Synagogue-linked incidents grew 31%, also a first-half record.
Police formally declared the April 29 stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green a terrorist incident. CST classified it as the report’s sole case of extreme violence. Both victims survived. CST recorded 71 antisemitic incidents on the day of the stabbing and the following two days, producing some of its highest daily totals of the six-month period. Sixteen explicitly referenced the attack, including celebration of the violence and calls for further attacks against Jews.
A wave of arson also struck Jewish sites that spring, including the March 23 burning of four Hatzola ambulances. Several attacks were claimed by the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, known as HAYI, which Britain designated under new state-threat powers in July. The government said members of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force almost certainly directed the group’s attacks across Europe.
CST recorded a 71 percent weekly jump in incidents after Israel and the United States entered open conflict with Iran on February 28. The reporting period also followed an October 2025 terror attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue in which two worshipers died.
CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner said the pattern threatened the whole country, not just its Jewish community. Policing Minister Sarah Jones called the figures appalling and pointed to a government pledge of more than £250 million for over 500 additional officers. “This is a national emergency,” said Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.
Read more:
Protecting British Jews In a Time of Crisis: A Conversation With CST’s Dr. Dave Rich
Take Action
CAM has launched Report It, a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent. Download it today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it.
