Police in London beefed up their presence around Jewish institutions following a suspected attempt to burn down a synagogue on Saturday, one day after an alleged arson attack on the former offices of a Jewish charity, police said.
“Uniformed and plain-clothed officers will maintain a strong presence around the borough, including providing reassurance to Jewish places of worship and businesses. Extra stop and search powers have also been introduced across Barnet to help deter acts of violence and target any potential offenders,” the Metropolitan Police wrote in a statement on Saturday night.
Armed response vehicles and Counter Terrorism Policing resources “have also been deployed to the area to support the increased local policing plan. Police motorbikes and interceptors will also be in and around communities to bolster efforts, the police said.
The arson in Kenton, northwestern London, on Saturday resulted in “minor damage to an interior room” at the synagogue and no injuries, the Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s security organ and watchdog on antisemitism, said in a statement on Sunday. The statement also said that police had arrived at the scene and were investigating what led to the incident.
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called the attack part of “A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the U.K.” that is “gathering momentum” and “an attack on the values that bind us all together,” in addition to being a “sustained attack on our community’s ability to worship and live in safety.
“It follows the attack in Finchley on Wednesday and the attempted attack on what was the Jewish Futures building in Hendon on Friday night, making three Jewish sites attacked in London in less than a week,” Mirvis noted.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote on X on Sunday, “There will be a significantly increased police presence in the area, including around Jewish places of worship and businesses. There is no place for antisemitism in our city, and the perpetrators of these despicable attacks will face the full force of the law. London will always stand united against those seeking to divide us.”
Also in north London
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said it was probing an arson attack that took place on Friday night in Hendon, also in northern London, against a business that had been previously owned by a Jewish charity.
The site on Hendon Way still bears signs of the former owner, reading “jewish futures.”
A man was seen to approach a row of shops with a plastic bag with what was later found to be three bottles containing fluid. He placed the bag next to the building and lit the items in the bag, according to police. The bottles failed to fully ignite and the man fled the scene. On Wednesday, a man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life after two bottles, possibly containing petrol, on the Finchley Reform Synagogue in northern London. Those incidents, too, resulted in minor damage and no injuries.
On March 23, four ambulances of the Hatzola Northwest Jewish emergency response group were set on fire in the London neighborhood of Golders Green.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews noted these incidents in a statement on Sunday, adding, “There have also been similar incidents targeting Iranian opposition media outlets and the Israeli Embassy.”
Board President Phil Rosenberg wrote: “Our community will not be intimidated by these cowardly acts of hate, which are an attack on Britain and its values, and on the security and cohesion of everyone in our country.”
In 2025, the United Kingdom had the highest per capita rate of real-life antisemitic assaults of any country with a large Jewish community, according to a report published last week by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating antisemitism.
The report, published on the eve of Israel’s national day of commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust, said that “high and sustained levels of antisemitic activity” were recorded in several areas, “with a notable concentration in a select number of countries: the United States, the U.K., Australia, France, Canada and Germany.”
The United Kingdom topped the chart of violent antisemitic incidents per capita with 121 cases in a country with a Jewish population of 292,000, the report noted.
The Community Security Trust recorded a total of 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025, including nonviolent and non-physical cases. This was an increase over the previous year and the second-highest tally on record, representing a 4% bump from the 3,556 anti-Jewish hate incidents CST recorded in 2024. Last year’s total was 14% lower than the highest ever annual total of 4,298 antisemitic incidents reported in 2023.
