A record number of antisemitic hate crimes were recorded in the UK last year – according to data from the Community Security Trust charity. It comes as there have been reports of huge rises in antisemitic abuse following the Hamas attack on the 7th of October. Dr Dave Rich, Director of Policy, Community Security Trust, said: "We've seen a tripling in incidents in schools and a similar increase in universities, we've had complaints from workplaces and online. It's really affecting all the places Jewish people go and every aspect of their life." Dr Rich said. Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 On the morning of 7th of October when the Hamas terror attack began in Israel,
00:05 we knew there would be a surge in anti-Jewish hatred in this country
00:08 because we've seen it so many times before.
00:10 But I think the scale of it is really shocking.
00:13 The size of the increase is so much higher than any other previous annual total.
00:18 The fact that we've seen incidents in every single part of the United Kingdom.
00:23 I think it feels for a lot of British Jews like something really changed on the 7th of October.
00:28 Of course we've seen anti-Semitism before, we've seen this kind of extremism before,
00:32 but it feels different.
00:34 It feels like it's affecting every part of Jewish life in a way that it didn't do previously.
00:39 But we've also seen a tripling of incidents in schools,
00:43 a similar increase in universities.
00:46 We've had complaints from workplaces.
00:48 We've seen the highest ever increase in online anti-Semitism.
00:53 So it's really affecting all the places that Jewish people go in every aspect of life.
00:58 I think a lot of Jewish people are very worried about what this means for the future
01:02 in a very practical sense, whether it is safe to leave their home
01:06 and show that they are visibly Jewish or if they have to change their behaviour.
01:10 I think there's an inner strength in the community to get through this as well.
01:13 But there's also a lot of anger that this is even happening in the first place.
01:17 You know, Britain over the years has become a country where
01:21 it's been a really good place to be Jewish.
01:23 And this feels like it's not the Britain that we have come to know.
01:27 And people are asking where this is coming from and where it's heading.
01:29 I think the anti-Jewish hatred should have no part in our society,
01:32 that it goes against our core values.
01:34 That's where I think all of us as a society can speak up more loudly.