‘Anti-Semitic’ hooligans smash Jewish festival lights in a night of sickening attacks during Hanukkah

Vandals have smashed public menorahs in north London during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

The bulbs of one in Queen’s Park were stolen and it was plastered with Pro-Palestinian stickers – the day after it was put up by Jewish community group the Chabad of West Hampstead. The menorah was targeted again on Thursday and this time it was completely destroyed.

Hanukkah is the eight-day Festival of Lights which celebrates the victory of a group of Jewish rebels known as the Maccabees over the ancient Greeks. The menorah – a nine-branched candelabra – is lit and fried food is eaten to mark the festival.

In Islington Green, hooligans tore down and smashed a menorah which had been put up by the Chabad of Islington and lit last weekend. An eyewitness described seeing a man ‘run up and smash the menorah’ at about 9.30am on Thursday before he fled.

Both incidents are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

In Islington Green, hooligans tore down and smashed a menorah which had been put up by the Chabad of Islington and lit last weekend 

Officers are keeping an ‘open mind’ about the reasons behind the vandalism, a spokesman told the Times. No arrests have been made.

A relighting ceremony was hastily organised next to Islington’s damaged menorah later that day.

Emily Thornberry, the constituency’s MP, handed out flyers encouraging residents to attend the event and as a way to express support and ‘solidarity’ with the area’s Jewish community.

Those attending lighting ceremonies across London have also been harassed and verbally abused by passers-by.

In Oxford Street, four men circled those gathered, shined laser pointers into their faces and tried to blow out the candles, forcing security guards to intervene.

Dave Price, the director of anti-Semitism charity CST, said: ‘A group of passers-by saw the event going on and started behaving in a hostile and threatening manner.’

On the first night of Hanukkah, passers-by in West Hampstead yelled ‘Free Palestine’ at members of the community who had gathered near the station to light candles, eat doughnuts and celebrate the festival.

The damaged menorah on Islington Green. An eyewitness described seeing a man ‘run up and smash the menorah’ at about 9.30am on Thursday before he fled

Victoria Protnoi, the chairman of Brondesbury Park Synagogue, said: ‘The community is absolutely devastated that Hanukkah has been targeted.’

But she stressed that more than 100 lighting ceremonies had been organised in London this year, reflecting the ‘strength and resilience of the community’.

The synagogue’s Rabbi Baruch Levin, added: ‘Given the increase in anti-Semitism in this country arising from the conflict in the Middle East, events like this are particularly offensive because they strike at a goodwill symbol that only seeks to share light.’

Mike Katz, the national chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, described the destruction of menorahs as ‘just awful’.

Since the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, CST has recorded at least 2,093 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK – the highest number reported to the charity across a 68-day period.

They include assaults, damage and desecration to Jewish property and threatening behaviour.

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