Violence against British Jews on the rise

Violent attacks on British Jews hit record levels last year, although the overall number of anti-Jewish incidents was down slightly on the previous year to its second highest level ever. As the Guardian reports:

Overall, in 2007 there were a record 114 violent assaults, one of which resulted in life-threatening injuries, among 547 race hate incidents against the Jewish community.

To put this in context, there are around 280,000 affiliated Jews in Britain (out of a population of more than 60 million). Given how reluctant many Jews are to report the harassment to which they are subjected, I reckon these figures — which are high in relation to the size of the community — understate the true situation.

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