AFP
In London’s Golders Green, with its large Jewish community, residents warned of growing antisemitism Monday after an early morning arson attack on four volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation.
“How could anyone do that to ambulances?” asked Steven, a 65-year-old resident of the north London district, after police said the attack was being treated as “an antisemitic hate crime”.
In Golders Green many children attend Jewish schools and men often wear a Jewish kippa skullcap or traditional Orthodox dress. Many restaurants and grocery stores are kosher.
Most locals keep the phone number of the Hatzalah community ambulance — whose vehicles were destroyed — on their fridges, one resident told AFP.
Local people stopped at the end of the street where the fire took place to survey the scene as they made their way to school or work.
The ambulances were parked right next to a synagogue.
Many said they were woken up during the night by a loud noise and then saw smoke.
“I’m not surprised that the Jewish community was targeted. It is a continuous ongoing thing,” said Adam Waters, 36, who works for a Jewish community organisation.
“I am surprised, though, that they targeted ambulances.”
He said he feels “safe” in London, but nonetheless has experienced daily “low-level antisemitism”, including “people chanting ‘Jew'”.
“It has increased since the war (in Gaza). But it has happened my whole life,” he added. But he said he feels “very British” and is “relatively confident” he will stay in London for the rest of his life.
But as for “my son, I don’t know,” he added, with concern.
– ‘Not safe for us’ –
On October 2, 2025, during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, an attack on a synagogue in Manchester killed two and seriously injured three, prompting an outpouring of emotion nationwide and increasing anxiety among Jewish communities.
Last month a UK court on Friday jailed two men for life after police foiled a separate plot to carry out an Islamic State-inspired gun attack on a Jewish gathering in Manchester.
Two Iranians appeared in court in London last week, accused of spying on the Jewish community in London on behalf of Tehran.
“We are scared, terrified,” said Yael Gluck, a mother of two, warning this was “only the start”.
The Jewish community felt safer during her childhood in the 1980s, she insisted.
But “antisemitism is too large now. When it is not happening in London, Manchester, it is in Sweden, Austria. We are not safe anywhere in the world,” she said.
She said she was thinking about moving to Israel and no longer went into central London. “It is not safe for us,” she said.
While the overnight attack did not cause any injuries, it was distressing for the community which values the Hatzalah ambulance service.
“How could anyone do that to ambulances? They were not working only for the Jewish community, but for anyone,” said Steven, who asked not to give his last name.
He said he felt “numb” after the attack.
“I feel this is an escalation,” he lamented, although he stressed he has never personally experienced antisemitism.
AFP
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