UK records highest-ever number of reported antisemitic incidents in 2021, up 34% on the previous year
The CST’s latest release shows that the number of reported antisemitic incidents reached a record high in 2021.
The figures for 2021 show 2,255 reports of antisemitic incidents, which is the highest figure on record and represents an increase of 34% on the previous year.
It is also widely recognised that many incidents go unreported.
The surge in antisemitism during the conflict between Hamas and Israel last May – when the CST recorded 661 reported antisemitic incidents, which was the highest ever monthly figure – is undoubtedly one of the causes of the severe rise, although a loosening of pandemic restrictions is also cited as a milder contributing factor.
More than half of the incidents were in London, and 2021 also saw the highest number of reported antisemitic incidents on British university campuses.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Once again, the Community Security Trust has done an outstanding job of exposing the increasing normalisation of antisemitism in this country. That number of incidents in 2021, the highest ever reported, is shocking and disgraceful, but it comes as no surprise to those of us who are working on the front line in this fight to counter this ancient racism.
“There have been ample opportunities to put the brakes on the spread of this poison in recent years, and they’ve all been missed. The report today shows we are now seeing the consequences of those failures. We need to see genuine zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. We need an education program that deals not just with schools and campuses, and we also need to look at de-radicalisation because we know that antisemitism is a gateway to extremism.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews more than four times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.
