According to a recent Home Office report for England and Wales, Jews are victims of more than one-sixth of religious hate crimes, despite the fact that they make up less than 1% of the

population of the United Kingdom. While the proportion of religious hate crimes targeting Jews has decreased slightly from the record high of 1,919 incidents in the year ending March 2022 to 1,596 in the year ending March 2023, this number remains significantly higher than in recent years, surpassing the 2017/2018 figure of 672 antisemitic hate crimes.

With fewer than 300,000 Jews residing in the UK, these statistics underscore the fact that the Jewish community was disproportionately targeted during the 12-month period.

The overall number of religious hate crimes increased by 9%, even as the total number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales decreased.

Jews ranked as the second most commonly targeted religious group, trailing only Muslims. In the year ending March 2023, when the victim's perceived religion was recorded, almost two out of every five (39%) religious hate crime incidents were directed at Muslims.

A spokesperson for the Home Office commented, "There is no place for hate in our society; it does not reflect the values of modern Britain, and we remain committed to ensuring these abhorrent offenses are stamped out.

"We are pleased there has been an overall reduction in hate crimes recorded by police, and the numbers of sexual orientation, race, and disability hate crimes all fell. But any instance is one too many.

"We expect the police to fully investigate these hateful attacks and ensure that the cowards who commit them feel the full force of the law." Photo by Quinn Dombrowski from Berkeley, USA, Wikimedia commons.