UK records record rise in antisemitic incidents, Jewish leaders warn

Britain recorded the biggest rise in antisemitic incidents of any country with a major Jewish population outside Israel in 2025, as the Community Security Trust counted 3,700 cases across the UK. The total was CST’s second-highest annual figure and 4% above the 3,556 incidents recorded in 2024.

The numbers come against a backdrop of sustained fear in Jewish communities after Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. CST said antisemitic incident levels remained significantly higher than before that attack, even after the immediate post-7 October spike had passed. The scale of the violence reached a deadly peak on 2 October 2025, when two Jewish men were killed in an attack on Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester.

A wider assessment by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, founded in July 2023, said 2025 was the deadliest year for Jews living outside Israel in more than 30 years. The task force said 20 people were killed in antisemitic attacks across Australia, Britain and the United States, while total incidents were 136% above pre-October 7 levels.

British Jewish leaders have responded by pressing for more than symbolic condemnation. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the CST figures showed antisemitism at a historic high and called it “an intolerable situation demanding comprehensive response from government.” The figures leave the UK as the clearest test case among major Western democracies for whether state institutions can contain a surge that has already moved into lethal violence.