Floral tributes are left at the police cordon near the scene of the terror attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on October 04, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)Getty Images
October went on to become the worst month for antisemitism of the year, with a record 463 antisemitic incidents, a 65 per cent rise on September.
Another spike was recorded in December following the Chanukah terror attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which saw 15 people killed. The CST recorded 16 incidents of antisemitism on the day of that attack, followed by 19 and 15 on the subsequent days, demonstrating how “violent attacks on Jews can fuel further antisemitic harassment and abuse”.
Beyond these spikes, antisemitism remained persistently high throughout the year. For the first time ever, more than 200 incidents were recorded in every calendar month of 2025, with the average monthly total of 308 incidents roughly double the monthly average recorded before October 2023, when the Hamas-led terror attacks across Israel unleashed a wave of antisemitism.
Incidents of anti-Jewish hate in 2025 exceeded the previous year (Graphic: CST)[Missing Credit]
The security charity recorded at least one antisemitic incident in every mainland police region in the UK, though areas with larger Jewish populations saw a higher concentration of attacks.
As in previous years, most incidents involved abusive behaviour (83 per cent), more than half referenced Israel, Palestine, Hamas, or the ongoing conflict, and nearly half combined explicitly anti-Zionist sentiment with anti-Jewish language or targeting.
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Singer Bobby Vylan of Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, June 2025. (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
Thirty-two incidents involved the phrase “death to the IDF,” with the CST classifying these instances as antisemitic when the slogan was used in an anti-Jewish context. Prior to the BBC broadcast of the band Bob Vylan’s provocative Glastonbury performance in June, when frontman Pascal Robinson-Foster chanted the slogan, the CST had no recorded instances of its use.
More than a quarter of incidents involved Nazi or Holocaust imagery, with over 200 cases celebrating the Holocaust, glorifying Nazis or expressing a desire for the Shoah to be repeated – an increase of nearly 50% from 2024. In some cases, offenders both denied and glorified the Shoah, which the CST said demonstrated “the hypocrisy and warped logic that underpin antisemitic thought”.
One third of cases of Holocaust glorification also referenced the Middle East. In one instance recorded in September, a card was sent to a Holocaust survivor on their 95th birthday. The message inside stated: “The Holocaust all over again. So no happy birth[day]. You people are a disgrace.”
A card sent to a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor (Photo: CST)[Missing Credit]
Many cases highlighted the persistence of conspiracy theories. In October, the CST received a report of a man ranting about Jewish people at a gym in Manchester, telling bystanders in the changing room: “It’s all a put-up job, it’s a lie, put up job by the Jews.” He then allegedly shouted at the manager: “You do not own anything, the Jews own everything, it’s all owned by the Jews”.
The CST figures also signalled that online antisemitism has reached a record high. The 1,541 incidents recorded account for 42 per cent of all cases. However, the charity recognised that this figure represented only a fraction of the abuse dished out online, noting it records only incidents that meet its threshold to be classed as antisemitic, and are reported.
There were some areas of improvement, such as the number of antisemitic incidents in schools, which fell by 23 per cent, and university-related incidents, which dropped by 41 per cent. But there were still 204 school-related antisemitic incidents recorded, including 77 cases at non-faith schools and 70 involving Jewish schoolchildren away from school. Pre-2023, these figures would have been classed as record highs.
In one incident recorded by the CST in May, a group of Jewish schoolgirls were walking home in north London when boys from another school blocked their path before charging at them shouting, “Dirty Jew, free Palestine!”
In total, the CST dealt with more than 6,700 reports during the year, including thousands of cases that did not meet its threshold for classification but required assessment, follow-up and, in many cases, police involvement, it said.
The coffin of Yaakov Levitan, who was killed in the December 14 Bondi beach shooting attack, arrives at the Macquarie Park Cemetery in Sydney on December 17, 2025. (Photo Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
Responding to the stark report, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said: “Behind these shocking numbers are ordinary Jews suffering because of hate.”
She said the government “stands against the scourge of antisemitism” and was providing “record funding” for security at Jewish buildings, pledging: “I will go further to strengthen police powers so they can crack down on intimidating protests.”
The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, described the figures as “appalling” but “sadly not a surprise”, and repeated calls for foreign national antisemites to be deported.
“We continue to call on the Home Secretary and the police to use the full force of the law against those who attempt to harass or intimidate British Jews, or calls for violence such as jihad or intifada.
“It is morally wrong that Jewish residents here in the UK no longer feel safe. Words are not enough. Action is needed,” he said.
Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, said the report illustrated “the unrelenting nature of antisemitism in our country today”. He added: “In all walks of life, Jewish people have been attacked, targeted, ostracised and excluded. Anti-Jewish racism is present in every sector and every corner of society.”
CST Chief Executive, Mark Gardner, said: “Two years of intense anti-Jewish hatred culminated in a jihadi terror attack at a synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The terror attack then triggered even more antisemitism, showing the depths of extremism faced by Jews and all our British society. All of this makes CST even more determined to keep protecting our community, giving it strength and dignity so it can lead the life of its choice.”
