Even more obvious and far more important is that this has occurred without any war in the Middle East. The rise is not a temporary spike of the type that we may — in our heart of hearts — like to think is somehow an external, passing matter.
Rather, this sustained high level of antisemitic incidents is British and is local in every sense. Even if it now slightly declines, as the November 2017-January 2018 figures suggest it may do, we have been warned just how much antisemitism in the shape of basic thuggery, hate and racism is out there.
As chief executive of CST, I am clear what our role is. We are not here to publicise antisemitism but to provide an honest and sober assessment of the situation, including reminders that the problems should be measured against the context of otherwise flourishing and free Jewish life.
We are here to empower our community and to help facilitate its success. But that means we must stand proud for what we believe in and have the resilience to fight our corner whenever necessary.
For those reasons, I regret that CST has to issue these latest figures and it saddens me to know that behind every single statistic is a human being, or a communal organisation, that has been impacted by antisemitism.
It is perhaps a cliché to say that even one antisemitic attack is one incident too many: how much more so then when we count nearly 1,400 in a calendar year and know that the majority still go unreported to police or to CST.
