Swastika graffiti daubed on wall near synagogue in Highgate shocks Jewish community

Anti-Semitic: the offensive graffiti was scrawled on a wall in Highgate
Michael Israel
Hannah Al-Othman17 November 2015

Residents were left shocked and saddened after a swastika was painted on a wall in a north London neighbourhood with a large Jewish population.

The symbol was discovered yesterday beneath a street sign in Jackson’s Lane, Highgate, not far from a synagogue.

It follows a spate of anti-Semitic crimes in London, including the desecration of a Jewish memorial in Tower Hamlet with raw meat.

Police are investigating the graffiti, which appeared overnight on Sunday. Michael Israel, a Jewish wine merchant who lives nearby, told the Standard he feared the incident could stem from a backlash against minorities brought about by Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

Mr Israel, 54, said he and his wife Clarissa, 42, had never experienced anti-Semitism in the area before.

“I thought my God, I’ve lived here 30 years, it’s a nice area and I’m not expecting to have swastikas in my street,” he said. “I was quite shocked, we live in London and it’s very cosmopolitan, all types of people live here peacefully. It saddens me that after the Holocaust these things are still happening.” He added: “It’s really sad, I think it’s people targeting the world, the community, everybody. It’s a really, really sad state of affairs.”

Shocked: Clarissa and Michael Israel
Clarissa Israel

His wife said she was worried about further repercussions. “It’s just 500 yards from our home, the majority of people in this area are Jewish,” she said. “I think they did it deliberately because they know Jewish people live in this area. I’m afraid because this hatred against us never goes away.”

According to Met figures, incidents of anti-Semitic crime more than doubled to 459 in the past financial year — up from 193 the year before.

In July a police investigation was launched after anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on walls across Stamford Hill. A month later the memorial was desecrated in east London.

In Highgate, a group of residents tried to scrub off the swastika but it remains visible. Mr Israel reported the graffiti to the Community Security Trust, a charity that works to protect British Jews from anti-Semitism. A spokesman for the organisation said the graffiti had been reported to Haringey council.

A Haringey council spokesman said: “We recognise residents’ shock at this unacceptable graffiti and thank them for bringing it to our attention. We aim to remove any obscene and/or racist graffiti within 24 hours of it being reported and will be taking steps to remove this ASAP.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in