Are these streets safe for Jews? It feels like they are right now. The sun is shining in Stamford Hill and I’m on patrol with a group of Met police officers, who say the community virtually has them on speed dial.
“The community likes us,” Superintendent Andy Port tells me, adding that he is constantly attending to their security needs. “I’m at work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I often find myself picking up the phone at 10am on a Sunday.”
It has been an alarming six weeks in the heavily Orthodox area of north London. A seemingly relentless series of vicious antisemitic attacks has seen two Charedi men being punched to the ground and a group on an open-top bus shouting: “Yiddos go home”.
The attacks led to an outcry that police didn’t care enough and were failing the Orthodox community.
That allegation hurts, says Supt Port. He says: “We do care, we care almost too much. Out of everything, being told we don’t care hurts the most.”
With us is local businessman Israel Wosner, who is visiting Biala Synagogue for Shabbat, hate crime officer Richard Poolman, and a group of other policemen. “We’re very grateful for what you do,” Mr Wosner says to the various officers assembled.
Met Officers on the beat in N16
Whether most of Stamford Hill’s Jews agree with Mr Wosner is another matter. Supt Port says despite appearances and recent media coverage, there has been no spike in hate crime in the area. The Community Security Trust recorded reports of 2,255 anti-Jewish hate incidents in 2021, up 34 per cent on 2020. Supt Port says that was down to the reaction to the Gaza conflict.
Met Police on patrol in Stamford Hill (Nigel Iskander)
“Proportionately, we bring more antisemitic hate crime offenders to justice in Hackney than other places,” he says. What about community demands for more bobbies on the beat? After attacks in late January, Rabbi Herschel Gluck, President of Stamford Hill Shomrim, told the JC that the attackers “need to see that Jews are protected by the state, that the state takes this seriously. We need to see more police on the street.”
The police have dedicated ward officers who patrol every day, Supt Port hits back. Community activist Shaye Fischer backs up the superintendent. “Andy has been fantastic, we have a close relationship,” he tells us. But, Mr Fischer adds, he personally experienced a hate crime recently that still hasn’t been followed up.
After I’ve left, Rabbi Gluck calls, and I put Supt Port’s claims to him. “How do they know there hasn’t been a spike in hate crime?” he demands. “The sad fact of the matter is there’s been a tremendous spike. The police are not dealing with it well in any manner.”
And so the debate over policing in Stamford Hill rages on.
You can read London Mayor Sadiq Khan's piece on stamping out antisemitism here
