Cllr Shimon Ryde calls for a response to this morning’s antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green

A police car in the foreground wit a long hose leading from the back of a fire engine in the background — Emergency services in Golders Green this morning – (Credit – Anna Mahtani)

The unthinkable, but sadly not unexpected, happened early this morning with the sound of explosions in NW London at around 1.30am. It took only a few minutes before I received messages from residents and friends informing that the local Hatzola centre had been hit by an arson attack and four Hatzola ambulances as well as the neighbouring synagogue were in flames.

I quickly dressed and rushed to the centre where I was met by a scene I had been praying I would never witness,a major attack on the NW London Jewish Community.

Under police direction, as I assisted residents from a block of flats to a makeshift shelter in a local Jewish community centre a gas canister in one of the ambulances exploded with such force that we were nearly knocked off our feet.

At the centre volunteers, including Cllr Dean Cohen a colleague and Golders Green ward Councillor, had also got the call to assist. We checked on residents and provided blankets hot drinks and biscuits and tried to reassure. Dean and I took steps to find temporary accommodation for displaced residents in case the fire brigades’ containment of the site would prevent them returning home for a prolonged period.

I walked around talking to people in the community centre and reflected on how the Jewish Community had got to this place where fear and violence are now some common they have become part of the normal day.

Back in 2015, I sat in the constituency office of the then MP for Finchley and Golders Green Mike Freer discussing the security of the local Jewish Community. The Conservative government had just announced that they would fund security guards for synagogues and other Jewish institutions.

I remarked to Mike that there was a dire need to provide security also for schools. Mike campaigned hard for this, raising the issue famously at Prime Minister’s questions and ultimately successfully ensuring after much hard work that schools were also included in the arrangements.

However, antisemitism has moved on since 2015, increasing each year to its current record levels. The security package welcomed then by the Jewish Community as groundbreaking, today is woefully inadequate.

Antisemitic attacks around the world, including this country in Manchester when on Yom Kippur this year when two people were murdered, has left the Jewish Community not only on edge but frightened. The recent arrests of two men plotting attacks in London has only heightened the danger felt.

Even with the additional funding from the current government announced recently, men and women in fluorescent jackets, many of them volunteers, is simply no longer enough.

When I have raised this I am told, and I am sure it is true, that the police are vigilant and have increased their levels locally. However last night’s attack in the centre of Golders Green, a stone’s throw off the main road, by three men who were able to approach unchallenged proves that whatever security is currently in place it is not enough.

Too long has the Jewish Community gone about our daily lives and activities in fear. No other community is forced to hide behind bomb proof doors at their places of worship, no other community is forced build tall security fences around their schools to protect their children, no other community fears attack when they go out to dine.

Next week is the Jewish festival of Passover, a time when we celebrate our freedom from slavery. It is time for the government to properly provide the visible reassurance and security needed for the North West London Jewish Community, allowing us to celebrate Passover without being slaves to the constant fear and danger we currently live under.

Shimon Ryde is a Conservative councillor for Hendon ward

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