The daughter of the president of the Board of Deputies, Jonathan Arkush, was the target of antisemitic abuse on Friday night, he has revealed.
Mr Arkush, speaking at the Board on Sunday, said his daughter and his brother-in-law were walking home from synagogue in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire when a passer-by rolled down the car window and shouted “Oy, Jew”.
“I don’t think it was intended as an entirely friendly greeting,” the Board leader said.
Mr Arkush suggested the experience was “probably typical” of the verbal abuse which represented the majority of last year’s record number of antisemitic incidents documen ted by the Community Security Trust in the UK.
He noted that hate speech crimes against all groups had risen by more than 40 per cent last year.
Those directed at Jews formed part of a pattern rather than being a unique surge, he suggested, although “that does not make it any better”.
