Jews in the police: ‘If we live here, we should play a part in protecting Britain’

Ma'am Williams, as she is known to subordinates, is one of 200 members of the Jewish Police Association who have welcomed Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis's call for more Jewish men and women to join the police force.

"When I said I wanted to be a police officer, my dad went absolutely mad," Chief Supt Williams recalled.

"He was worried. He had encountered antisemitism from police officers and was concerned. But it was something I wanted to do, so I went away and took the tests.

"I was part of the Jewish voluntary service and thought, I would like to join the police to make a difference. I think, in my own way, I have."

Over the years, she has fought off knife-wielding drug dealers and has picked up bags that contained unexploded bombs.

"In the early days, we did not even have body vests, handcuffs, sprays or truncheons," she said. "I remember disarming a man with a knife - and I did not even get any thanks. I was the only woman on the drug squad.

"I remember my sergeant giving all the radios to male officers, and I got 10p. He said: 'If you get in trouble, make a phone call and I'll come and get you'. They gave me a handbag and I used to just whirl that around if I needed it.

"I've dealt with bombs on cars during the IRA attacks. You would find a suspicious bag lying around and kick it. Now, we are much more health and safety conscious."

But now, despite their initial reservations, she said "my parents are so proud of my achievements and they stick up for the police - that's what I would like for Jewish kids.

"We want the police to reflect the people we serve. There are still quite a lot of Jewish people in London and we need to reflect them."

There are thought to be around 200 Jews in the Metropolitan Police. Given the size of the community in the capital, that number should be closer to 800. She added: "I am passionate about the police. I think I have the best job in the world. It is not about walking in the street with a pointy hat on. I don't think people know what a fabulous career it can be."

Chief Supt Williams - who met her husband, Wayne Morris, a retired Jewish police inspector, at training school - has never encountered antisemitism in the force. She describes herself as a traditionalist who takes time off for the High Holy Days.

A Hendon Reform Synagogue member, she said there are still communication problems between the Jewish community and the police.

"People need to report hate crime," she explained. "They tell the Community Security Trust, but not the police. I cannot put my resources into preventing antisemitic crime if people do not tell me where or when it is happening."

Her message was echoed by Lubavitcher Moshe Rothstein, a Special Constable with Greater Manchester Police, who describes himself as "a bridge for the massive gap between the Jewish community and the police".

The 30-year-old, who is the only religious Jew in the division, has been shortlisted for the Lord Ferrers Award, which will recognise outstanding special constables and police support volunteers at the House of Commons in September.

For Mr Rothstein, the award "means the world". "If we live here, we should play a part in protecting Britain," he said.

He decided to join the force after he received antisemitic abuse in 2009 in two separate incidents.

"Someone said: 'Why don't you join?' I was like, 'Are you having a laugh - a Jewish policeman?' I thought it was a bit weird.

"But I have never looked back. It is the best job in the world. I've saved people's lives. A month ago, I physically held back a girl from jumping off a motorway bridge. It's the scariest thing and the most amazing feeling.

"I have dealt with serious car accidents and seen how short life is. I have dealt with mental health patients, dangerous people and domestics. No other frum person has seen what I've seen.

"I am like any other police officer - the only difference is I don't get paid," added Mr Rothstein, who is also a truck driver.

The former yeshivah student encourages the religious community to report crimes to authorities, and to not try to deal with them internally.

He explained: "I do not think the Jewish community is equipped to deal with situations like sex cases. They should go straight to the police.

"The Jewish community has this idea that you cannot speak to non-Jewish people, that you have to keep it to yourself. Slowly things are being reported to the police, but it is slower than it should be.

"The police do not understand the community and the Jewish community do not understand the police. In every duty I do, I educate both sides.

"The community speak to me on a regular basis when I'm on foot patrol. But when I have another officer with me, they speak less comfortably."

He too claimed he had never encountered antisemitism in the force. In fact, colleagues drive him to pick up kosher food.

But for Kimberley Woolf, 29, the experience was not as positive. Occasionally, her Jewish background would be brought up.

At Christmas her female inspector bought her a princess tiara set and an A-Z map - a snide reference to her north-west London Jewish background.

"What a cow," laughed Mrs Woolf, who joined the police six years ago. "She thought I was a Jewish princess from north-west London - that was her perception of me."

She added: "I worked in Barnet and Harrow, so police officers knew the Jewish community and had a view of what the Jewish community was like. They thought I would not want to get involved in fights, that I would want to get my nails done. I had to prove myself in that sense.

"Had I not been Jewish, had the upbringing I had or spoke as I do, people would not have judged me."

Former Akiva Jewish primary school student Mrs Woolf, who's a mother of one from Borehamwood, in Hertfordshire, decided to join the Met after completing her social policy and criminology degree at the London School of Economics.

"I was either going to go into the police or teaching," she said. "I wanted to do something where I was making a difference, where every day was going to be different. I could never imagine sitting in front of a computer all day."

She added: "It was quite hard for my dad, because I'm his only daughter. It is a scary career and it's not the safest job for a Jewish girl. My friends were like: 'What are you doing?'"

She joined as a constable and went on to work as a Sexual Offences Investigative Techniques officer. She attended 999 calls and Friday night fights, and vividly remembers "the first dead body I saw. I ended up at the scene on my own, which was a bit creepy. I had to check that he hadn't been murdered. Obviously feeling a cold, dead body wasn't… I definitely think it affected me. After the first and second, it doesn't feel real any more."

Because she was Jewish, Mrs Woolf was assigned to a sexual offences case in Barnet that involved an Orthodox couple. "Even then, the victim was picky as to what I was wearing and doing," she recalled. "She really opened up to me in the end but it took a lot of work from my end to get her to trust me."

But Mrs Woolf, who is now applying for a role at domestic violence charity Jewish Women's Aid, left the Met as a result of anti-social hours. She met her husband, Rob - also a retired officer - on JDate in 2011. "I left because my timings were very intense. I would finish work at 2am and be expected back at 7am," she said. "I was constantly missing out, there was no work-life balance.

"I was trying to live two lives. I was trying to live my Jewish life and my police life. To me, the two weren't compatible."

But Mr Woolf, 37, left for different reasons after 11 years with the Met. Now an estate agent at a Hampstead firm where "there are a lot more Jews", he believes that officers should be given more support in the face of the latest cuts.

Mr Woolf, a former diplomatic protection officer who guarded Number 10 and the Israeli ambassador's house, recalled: "It's a cliché, but I did just want to help people. I have done a number of different roles in the police.

"I was a bobby on the beat, then went into a CID investigative role. I worked on surveillance of burglars and drug dealers. I was a plain-clothes officer on the crimes squads and dealt with nasty people.

"I was threatened. People would say: 'I would take 15 years for putting a knife in you.' You got that an awful lot."

But he decided to leave after "a pretty hair-raising experience" in 2012. After he threw himself on a man who was trying to set off a bomb in London, he felt he did not get any support.

"We saw the man on a bridge over the Thames playing with a bag. As an armed officer, you can't go around waving your gun at people. My colleague and I jumped on him.

"I looked in his bag and saw that it was an improvised explosive device. It was a viable bomb. I just thought: 'Wow, I'm not getting paid enough for this'.

"I felt I wasn't kept in the loop and there was very little aftercare. On the day, it was a case of: 'You all right?'"

But he has contested the call for more Jews to join the Met.

"It is a massive problem. You need more of the right people, as opposed to 'ethnicity'. You can get a lot more Jewish officers if you like, but if they don't have the right mind-set it would make things worse."

He said being Jewish did not automatically mean someone was suited to dealing with crime in the community.