Jewish schools across England are taking extra precautions to protect their staff and students after the attack on Israel, as the body that provides security advice to Jewish communities in the UK said it had recorded 89 antisemitic incidents between Saturday and Tuesday.
Extra security patrols have been posted at school gates, and trips and after-school detentions have been cancelled.
Several schools said they had carried out “invacuation” drills, where pupils practise sheltering in safe areas or reinforced rooms in the event of a threat. Pupils have been told to avoid wearing identifying school uniform on public transport.
The Community Security Trust reported that the number of antisemitic incidents in the four days from Saturday morning had increased by 324% compared with the same period last year.
“This is a provisional total that is almost certain to increase further as we receive more delayed reports of incidents covering this period, and while we continue to verify and log all the reports that we have currently received,” the CST said.
“Make no mistake: these are anti-Jewish racist incidents and hate crimes in which Jewish people, property and institutions are singled out for hate, including death threats and abuse.
“In many cases, the perpetrators of these disgraceful incidents are using the symbols and language of pro-Palestinian politics as rhetorical weapons with which to threaten and abuse Jewish people.”
The 89 incidents included six assaults, three cases of damage to Jewish property, 14 direct threats and 66 cases of abusive behaviour, including verbal abuse, graffiti, hate mail and online abuse.
Among the examples given by the CST was an Orthodox Jewish man on a London bus being hit in the face by a man who tried to take his religious hat. A Jewish person walking to a synagogue in London was called “dirty Jew” by a stranger, who said “no wonder you’re all getting raped”.
Graffiti reading “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” was daubed on the former home of a rabbi in Nottingham. A group of children in a school blamed a Jewish pupil for the killing of Palestinians.
Most of the incidents took place in London and Greater Manchester.
The CST has recorded spikes in the number of antisemitic incidents during previous conflicts involving Israel and Gaza. In May 2021, it recorded 70 incidents in the first four days, and in July 2014, 29 were noted.
John Dalziel, the headteacher of King David high school in Manchester, said there was a drop in attendance on Monday as parents kept their children at home but numbers had since risen.
“We have 800 Jewish students at this school and almost all of them have family and relatives there who have been affected directly or indirectly,” Dalziel said. “Our main priority is that our school is a place of safety where normal life is continuing away from the 24-hour news cycle.”
Dalziel said Greater Manchester police and the CST had increased their patrols around the school, while trained parent volunteers had been in place, especially at the start and end of the day, to reassure parents.
The school has also held assemblies to discuss the attacks, sharing examples of resilience and kindness. Pupils have been given lessons on online safety, stressing the need to be aware of social media disinformation and graphic images.
The highly visible ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, north-east London, said the aftermath of the atrocities in Israel had “regrettably seen a rise in hate crimes in the UK, which is a cause for extreme concern.
“We commend the police for their increased patrols and reassurances, which play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of our community.”
Edward Daniel, the spokesperson of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said the group was working with CST’s security team and assessing university Jewish events “on a case-by-case basis”.
Daniel said: “UJS held a briefing for Jewish student leaders on Monday to advise them how to safely proceed with events during this crisis. While there sadly is a need for Jewish students to be more vigilant of their personal security, UJS maintains that university campuses are safe for them to attend, and our team are available to support them.”
Pupils have been told they can take off blazers and ties while travelling on public transport, as have students attending JFS in north London, Europe’s largest Jewish school, which has about 2,000 pupils.
“The most important thing is to ensure the safe passage of students between home and school and to make sure that this school is set up to care for our children during the school day,” JFS’s headteacher, David Moody, said in an email to parents.
A former JFS pupil, Nathanel Young, who was serving in the Israel Defence Forces, was killed on the Gaza border on Saturday. Another former pupil, Jake Marlowe – who had been missing while providing security at a music festival near the Re’im kibbutz close to the border – has been found dead, his family confirmed on Wednesday.
The Jewish community secondary school in Barnet, north London, has introduced extra checks on people entering its site. Melanie Lee, the headteacher, told parents: “There will be heightened vigilance, an increase in the numbers of our own school security team and also enhanced security checks at entry points into the school.”
Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox primary school in Salford is among those that have cancelled school trips and put extra security in place during the school day.
Suella Braverman has urged chief constables to clamp down on any attempts to use flags, songs or swastikas to harass or intimidate members of the Jewish community. Chanting and the waving of a Palestinian flag could be offences, the home secretary said.
Within hours of the attack, the Metropolitan police said they had increased patrols in London “in order to provide a visible presence and reassurance to our communities”.
On Tuesday evening, two protesters scaled Sheffield town hall to replace an Israeli flag flying at half-mast with a Palestinian flag.
