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(TJV) A disturbing attack occurred in the Stamford Hill area of London when a man threw glass bottles at a group of Jewish schoolgirls from a balcony, according to The Algemeiner. One girl, aged 16, was hit in the head and taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police reported.
The Metropolitan Police said officers responded to the assault on Monday at 7:44 PM local time at the Woodberry Down Estate in Hackney. “A bottle was thrown from the upper floor of a building,” a police spokesperson confirmed, adding that the incident is being investigated as a potential antisemitic hate crime. The suspect has not yet been found.
👧 14-year-old girl rushed to Hospital with head & facial injuries following an attack in #StamfordHill.
🥀 Young Jewish girls on their way to a rehearsal were pelted with glass bottles by a male on a balcony at Woodberry Down Estate N4.
💔 This… pic.twitter.com/MzHPHusgyX
— Shomrim (London North & East) (@Shomrim) November 26, 2024
Jewish community organization Shomrim, which tracks antisemitic incidents, called the attack “abhorrent” and expressed shock over the assault on “innocent young Jewish girls.” The group also reported a separate incident involving a 14-year-old Jewish girl, who was hit with a hard object that knocked her unconscious and left her with a head injury.
A Pattern of Antisemitic Attacks
Monday’s incident is the latest in a troubling rise of antisemitic hate crimes targeting London’s Jewish community, as previously reported by The Algemeiner. In recent years, London Jews have faced assaults, verbal abuse, and other violent attacks.
Examples include an Orthodox Jewish man attacked by a cyclist, a Jewish woman violently assaulted by two individuals, and a group of Jewish children threatened by a woman yelling, “I’ll kill all of you Jews.” Other reports describe a Jewish woman hit with a wooden stick and doused in liquid while being called a “dirty Jew.”
Data from the Metropolitan Police indicates that between October 2023 and October 2024, there were 2,383 antisemitic hate crimes in London — a dramatic increase compared to 550 incidents in 2022 and 845 in 2021, according to The Algemeiner.
Efforts to Address the Crisis
In response to the rise in antisemitism, London Mayor Sadiq Khan recently introduced a direct bus route to help Jewish residents travel safely between Stamford Hill and Golders Green, two areas with large Jewish populations. Khan stated the new route is meant to reassure the community, allowing them to “feel safe” while using public transport.
Despite these measures, concerns persist over escalating threats. Just this week, GB News reported that leaflets were distributed in London threatening violence against Zionists. StandWithUs UK director Isaac Zarfati described the trend as “alarming,” calling for decisive action to combat the growing threat.
“This is not a wave that will pass on its own,” Zarfati warned. “We must take these threats seriously, as they risk escalating into violence.”
The surge in antisemitic incidents, The Algemeiner reports, reflects a troubling trend of hate crimes that has drawn comparisons to levels not seen in Western nations since World War II.
