LONDON (EJP)--- Anti-Jewish graffiti have been daubed earlier this week in the mainly Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Stamford Hill, in North Eeast London.
According to sources, vandals sprayed shops, pavements and walls outside four synagogues in Stamford Hill with slogans such as “Jihad to Israel” and “Jihad to Tel Aviv.”
The four synagogues targeted are Chasidey Belz Beth Hemedrash, Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev, Aereth Zvi Beth Hamedrash and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
Stamford Hill is home to one of Europe's largest Hasidic Jewish community.
"As people now become alert to the problem we are hearing of other instances of this and very similar graffiti at non-Jewish locations around East and North East London," Mark Gardner, director of communications of Community Security Trust (CST), told European Jewis Press.
CST is an organization which looks after the safety of British Jews
"Scotland Yard and specialist police units are aware of the situation and have undertaken forensic tests at locations, and have alerted other police stations across London about the situation," Gardner said.
CST has alerted its personnel throughout the city.
According to Gardner, security is already tight at synagogues "due to the relatively high level of terrorist threat that we have sadly faced for some years now."
"These daubings show exactly why we need that security, which depends upon partnership between police, local communities and CST where necessary," he added.
He said police reaction "has been prompt and professional as has the response from local council clean up teams who have removed the graffiti as quickly as possible in order to reduce community tension and fear."
David Greenwald, 20, from the Chasidey Belz Beth Hemedrash synagogue in Clapton Common, said the community was shocked.
"This morning I went to synagogue to pray and saw the writing all over everywhere - walls, shops, traffic lights," he said. "Everyone feels scared. Here we do not have any problem with Arabs - there has never been anything like this before, but now we are worried."
Brian Coleman, a member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden said that "this anti-Semitism is a worrying trend and cannot be tolerated."
"I will be asking the Mayor of London to work closely with the Community Security Trust) ensure that he can do everything possible to stop these attacks.''
Record number of anti-Semitic incidents
A British minister told the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament, that anti-Semitic incidents in the UK remain "far too high" and the number recorded last year was the second highest ever.
Cohesion Minister Parmjit Dhanda said there were 547 incidents last year and the government had to continue to work to "bear down" on the problem.
During a debate on anti-Semitism, the Minister told MPs that by April 2009, all police forces would have to collect data on hate crime, including anti-Semitism.
The problem continued to be a "real concern" and new research had been commissioned by the government, he said.
