BBC News
The number of antisemitic incidents recorded across the UK since the start of the year is up by a fifth compared to last year, figures show.
The Community Security Trust (CST), an organisation that provides security support to the Jewish community, recorded 1,926 incidents of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in the first six months of 2026.
It represents a 21% increase on the number of similar incidents reported in the first half of last year.
It also marks the second highest total of antisemitic hate incidents ever recorded by CST in the first half of any year since the organisation began collecting data in 1984.
Policing Minister Sarah Jones said the numbers were “appalling” and showed people “living in fear just for being who they are”.
The incidents logged in the first few months of 2026 include a series of arson attacks against Jewish organisations and synagogues in London.
Four volunteer ambulances were set alight in Golders Green in March. The following month two visibly Jewish men were stabbed nearby, in an attack which was treated as an act of terrorism.
The CST said it recorded noticeable surges in antisemitic incidents following these events, with the highest daily total following the double stabbing on 29 April.
Hatred continues to be directed at British Jews at a higher level than before 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and the war in Gaza began.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is one of the factors behind the rise in antisemitism. Some 41% of the incidents recorded by the CST used anti-Jewish language or motive at the same time as making reference to either the conflict, Israel, Palestine, or Hamas.
CST chief executive Mark Gardner said: “These attacks are directed against British Jews but they are also attacks on Britain and our society.”
He said they “should concern everyone who cares about Britain and the threats against it, whether state-directed from Iran, or internally driven by Islamist, far-right, far-left, or other ideological extremes.”
Separate data released last week revealed that antisemitism is at heightened levels globally.
A report by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism found that the UK recorded the biggest rise in antisemitic incidents last year of any country with a major Jewish population outside Israel.
It also found that 2025 was the deadliest year for Jews in the diaspora in more than three decades.
The government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord John Mann, said these new CST figures, “demonstrate that anti-Jewish racism in the UK remains at all all-time high and continues to pose a significant threat to our democracy”.
He added that he is especially concerned “to see the nature of antisemitism in the UK becoming increasingly violent”.
The CST also analyses the types of incidents which occur across different sectors. It found that in the first half of 2026, antisemitism in schools reached the highest level ever recorded for the first six months of any year. It jumped by 59%, from 112 reported incidents in the first half of 2025, to 178 recorded over the same period in 2026.
A government-commissioned independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges is currently being carried out by Sir David Bell. It is expected to report in the autumn.
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