'It's dangerous to be visibly Jewish in the UK'

There is a palpable sense of shock and anger in the community in Golders Green, which has been targeted again just five weeks on from the attack on four Jewish charity ambulances - a short walk away from Wednesday morning's double stabbing.

The latest attack happened after two men left Hagers Shul Synagogue. The BBC understands the suspect is a 45-year-old Somali-born British man, Essa Suleiman. Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, are in a stable condition in hospital.

On a day when political leaders including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have come to this part of north-west London to express their horror, there is a mixture of defiance and fear among those living here - some of whom are planning to leave.

Edith Binstock, who has lived in Golders Green for more than 70 years, says it "was the most amazing place to live" when she was young.

The 80-year-old, whose parents are Holocaust survivors, said: "We all lived happily and the non-Jewish neighbours were really cordial to us and everyone got on, and over the last years it's got worse and worse.

"My mother got in at the last minute to England; she thought it was a life of paradise here but now it's just so awful.

"I know I'm a Jew but I can tell you England would be a worse place if we all go."

She says "it's just shocking" that the targets were "people going about their normal business".

"Why do we have to live like this? I have a son in [volunteer emergency medical service] Hatzola, I have two nephews in Hatzola and they'd do anything to save lives, even somebody who's ready to knife them.

"I don't know how it's got to such a state… I don't know when it's going to get better. I doubt it."

Another local resident, David Baddiel, tells the BBC "that there's not much future for Jewish people here in the UK" and that he plans to leave.

"I thought about this a year ago," he told the BBC. "I've been planning it for a year and I keep thinking: 'Am I doing the right thing?' Every time I come up with the same conclusion: 'Yes, get out.'

"There are other people doing it. I've got family members doing it and I think that other people will eventually do that too.

"I don't think everyone can do it but the more people feel that the government and the police are not doing anything to protect us, people will want to leave."

He added: "This is like the 1930s. This is how it started when Jews lived in Poland. The signs were there, the writing was on the wall - the people felt comfortable - but the writing's on the wall, we need to go."

Asked if leaving would make him feel sad, he agreed that it would.

"This culture is what I know," he said. "I'm British, I'm not Israeli. This is where my family are, this is where my community, my friends are.

"It's not what I want to do, it's what I have to do."

Jenny Manson, co-chair of Jewish Voice for Liberation (formerly known as Jewish Voice for Labour), says she is "extremely shocked" at the stabbing of "two random people identifying as Jews", which she calls "absolutely terrifying".

"They have no connection probably with what the anger at the moment is about, which is anger often with Israel," she says.

"I'm scared for people like my husband. I don't go to synagogue myself. I'm secular but some members of my family do, and I think it's now going to be really dangerous.

"It's very sad. I've never felt fear in this country before, and I've met very little antisemitism, but I now think it's dangerous to be visibly a Jew."

She adds: "There has been for a long time, led by, I'm afraid, government and the media, conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

"The danger of this is much more dangerous than we first realised. It means that many, many people think all Jews support Israel."

Additional reporting by Asad Ahmed

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