"They tried to firebomb my synagogue": The rise in antisemitic attacks
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Attacks targeting the Jewish community have surged in recent weeks, with synagogues and community centres being hit. Many people are feeling increasingly vulnerable, but what's behind this escalation? And how is it impacting Jewish people?
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Guests:
- David Woode, crime editor, The Times
- Josh Glancy, associate editor, The Sunday Times
Host: Luke Jones.
Producers: Dave Creasey & Edward Drummond.
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Read more: Jewish attacks ‘are why state-backed groups must be called terrorists’
Further listening: Danny Finkelstein: How the world’s antisemites turned on me
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:07.0 | In court this week, a 17-year-old admitted to setting fire to a synagogue in North London. |
| 0:17.0 | The Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow was attacked around midnight on Saturday. |
| 0:24.3 | That alone is understandably worrying stuff for the Jewish community. |
| 0:29.8 | This is an attack on our way of life, on our ability to live as ethnic minorities alongside |
| 0:35.6 | each other, not in conflict, not in violence, not divided |
| 0:40.4 | into sectarian tribes that fight each other. But even more concerning is that this is just the |
| 0:46.4 | latest in a string of attacks on Jews in London. Four ambulances belonging to the Jewish community |
| 0:53.0 | have been set on fire in Golders Green in North London. |
| 0:56.0 | Police say it was an arson attack and is being treated as an anti-Semitic hate crime. |
| 1:00.0 | And this comes after a rise in anti-Semitism following the start of the war in Gaza. |
| 1:04.0 | What is happening? |
| 1:06.0 | How is all of this being investigated? And how should we respond? |
| 1:21.8 | The story today. |
| 1:23.9 | British Jews under attack. |
| 1:38.5 | I was at Westminster Magistrates Court for a separate case when I was sitting on the press bench and I received an email from the Metropolitan Police saying that they had charged a 17-year-old |
| 1:43.8 | boy in connection with the arson attempt on the Kenton United Synagogue. received an email from the Metropolitan Police saying that they had charged a 17-year-old boy |
| 1:44.1 | in connection with the arson attempt on the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow. |
| 1:50.2 | David Wood is Crime Editor for The Times. |
| 1:52.7 | If you ever need to get hold of him, he is more often than not sitting on the press bench |
| 1:56.2 | in a courtroom somewhere. |
| 1:58.7 | His parents were sitting in front of the glass-fronted dock. |
... |
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