For generations, Golders Green has been a hub of Jewish life. It is where families shop for Shabbat and where synagogues welcome members of the community as family. However, when I visited on Thursday, the atmosphere was heavy with shock following the news that two Jewish individuals had been stabbed. They were targeted not for what they did, but for who they are.
As I stood near the scene, the wider context was impossible to ignore. I was only yards from the location of an arson attack on the Hatzolah community ambulance service in March. I was a short bus ride away from Finchley Reform Synagogue, which was also targeted in an arson attack. Similar attacks were perpetrated in Hendon and Kenton, all within the north-west London Jewish community. And all of this takes place in the shadow of the terrorist attack in October on Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, which claimed the lives of two worshippers.
For Britain’s Jewish community, the shock runs deep. Friends and relatives are checking in on one another. Parents are asking whether it is still safe for their children to wear school uniform or visible symbols of their faith. This is precisely what terror is designed to do: not just wound bodies but destroy confidence and prey on fear.
This was not random violence. It was an attempt to raise the cost of being Jewish in Britain. That is the logic behind antisemitic attacks across history. If Jews can be made to feel afraid in their own neighbourhoods, if visibility itself becomes a liability, then hatred has begun to achieve its aim.
That must never be allowed to happen. The answer cannot be for Jewish life to shrink or retreat. Instead, the cost of being antisemitic must be far higher than the cost of being Jewish in this country.
Standing at the scene, I was struck not only by distress but also by solidarity. Community volunteers, police officers and passers-by offered quiet words of support. That matters. But solidarity must now be matched by urgency and action. After the Heaton Park attack, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and communal partners called on the government to take structured action to combat antisemitism. There has been some movement, but a greater sense of urgency is needed.
Police at the scene where two people were stabbed in the Golders Green area of London
We see some politicians exacerbating community tensions created by conflict in the Middle East for their political ends, and political parties whose candidates in these local elections have said jaw-droppingly unacceptable things. We must act to stop those intent on importing international conflict to our local communities.
Troubling questions must also be asked. We cannot ignore the possibility that this violence may be connected to wider currents of hatred being fuelled beyond our borders. If foreign actors are seeking to inflame antisemitism as part of efforts to destabilise western democracies, then this is not simply a policing issue. It is a national security concern and requires a robust response.
I have been buoyed by the messages I have received from Muslim colleagues and other faith communities. We now need to move beyond words to build an alliance that tackles extremism and promotes the good relations these attacks seek to destroy.
The Jewish community does not ask for special treatment, only equal treatment. That means visible policing where needed, robust prosecutions and political leadership that treats antisemitic hatred as an urgent national issue.
Newsletters
Choose the newsletters you want to receive
View more
For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy
There is a cruel irony that this attack comes just weeks before the start of the first Jewish Culture Month, a time intended to celebrate the richness of Jewish life in Britain. Jewish culture here is not a relic of the past, it is living and woven into our national story.
We are a proud British community and we will not be intimidated into silence or invisibility. Our people have endured worse than this. What those who spread hatred will discover is that resilience is built into our DNA.
If Britain is serious about being a country where minorities can live freely and safely, moments such as this demand more than sympathy. They demand resolve. The message must be unambiguous: Jewish life belongs here, and those who seek to terrorise it will pay a far higher price than the brilliant, warm and creative British Jewish community they seek to victimise.
Phil Rosenberg is president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
Photographs by Carl Court/Getty Images