Members of Stamford Hill’s Jewish community. Photo: Simon/Flickr.

Antisemitic hate crimes in London were slightly higher in December than the preceding month, according to the latest data issued by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

MPS recorded 44 such incidents in the British capital last month. There were 43 in November, bringing the total for 2022 to 575. A total of 3,211 antisemitic hate crimes have been recorded since 2018, with incidents peaking in 2021, when there were 853.

The new year has already witnessed a fresh wave of attacks on the Orthodox Jewish community in London, one of the largest in Europe. On Tuesday, Shomrim Stamford Hill, a Jewish community defense group, reported that a man entered a Jewish bakery and attempted to assault a Jewish woman after asking, “Are you Jewish?”

Last week, Jewish man and his infant son were assaulted  and the father was slashed while taking a walk in the Stamford Hill neighborhood of North London, where large concentrations of Orthodox Jews live. In another separate incident, a woman in Stamford Hill was stalked and assaulted by an unknown perpetrator.

Earlier in December, a man in the Stamford Hill stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “Dirty Jew,” and then snatched her shopping bag, “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing,” according to Shomrim Stamford Hill, which provides security and support to London’s Orthodox Jewish community.

In August, a woman wielding a wooden stick approached a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declared “I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her.The next day, the same woman — described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist” — chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying a liquid on the baby, and that same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f****** Jew.”

The ongoing uptick comes amidst a similar antisemitic crime wave in New York City.

Hasidic and Orthodox Jews in New York City are the minority group most victimized by hate crimes in the city, according to a Dec. 28 report by Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA), a US based group founded in 2019 to raise awareness of rising antisemitism.

Antisemitic hate crimes in New York City during the month of November increased by 125 percent when compared to last year, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported in December. The NYPD recorded 45 antisemitic hate crimes in November 2022. In November 2021, it recorded 20. According to the data, Jewish New Yorkers were the most targeted group, accounting for 60 percent of all hate crimes that occurred.

Follow reporter Dion J. Pierre at @DionJPierre.