Exclusive: Slough attack victim tells Nigel Farage antisemitism ‘more frequent’ since October 7

Speaking to Farage on the phone, Moshe said he appreciated the call from the Reform UK leader and shared that he was “scared for my life” at the time of the attack.

However, he went on to say that he had been expecting such an incident to take place.

“This is hardly an isolated incident. Just the only difference is that in most cases, it's, you know, the passing car … shouting ‘dirty Jew’ or ‘free Palestine’ or something like that, and then they move on, which ironically gives you a false sense of security, when you think that, you know, things are going to be okay, and they just going to shout at you, but no one's actually going to hurt you.”

“And then obviously this happened. But I can say I was absolutely not surprised. It's almost as if I was expecting this to happen at some point.”

Moshe told Farage that, while antisemitism wasn’t new to him, he’s noticed a marked increase since October 7, 2023.

“I’ve been shouted at as a kid 'dirty Jew'. So maybe what used to be 'dirty Jew' is now ‘free Palestine’ or ‘baby killer’.

"So you know, the vocabulary has become slightly more colourful and more frequent, much more frequent, significantly more frequent.”

And while he said that he would be returning to work, he added that he was encouraging his friends to become less of a visible target, even at the cost of hiding their identity.

“It's not… the message that people want to hear. But what I'm telling my Jewish friends is, don't be anyone's hero. Don't go out there visibly Jewish and as a noticeable target.

"It's not your job to be anyone’s hero. I will go on to work, but... I'll be very careful.”

Farage, meanwhile, said he found the incident “unbelievable”, but shared that several of his Jewish former contacts in his business days were “literally talking about leaving the country”.

He went on to say: “I sympathise hugely with what you've gone through. It's pretty traumatic, pretty unpleasant. But I think… your phrase to tell Jewish people not to be heroes… they're probably very wise words. But then, in a sense, it means hiding part of your identity, doesn't it?”

Moshe replied: “Most certainly so, which is the reason why … originally, I didn't, I'm not comfortable with the whole media publicity, but my friends are doing the same work as me, and so many of them have reached out to me afterwards, saying 'I’ve had a similar incident, but you know, it just wasn't recorded’. So, people should know. Jewish people should know that they have to be we have to be careful. We have to be vigilant and just be careful out there.”

Shafiq Rahman, 48, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault, fear or provocation of violence by words and criminal damage at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Video of the incident was shown in court, and District Judge Devinder Sandhu described the attack as a “pure hate crime”.

She added: “I am appalled and startled by what I saw on that footage, a completely unprovoked attack on a man who was simply doing his job.”

Rahman was released on bail to be sentenced at Reading Crown Court along with other matters on July 10.