A sharp fall in the number of anti-Semitic incidents so far this year across Greater Manchester was reported today by a charity.
In its latest report published on Thursday, the Community Security Trust, which works across the country to protect and support Jewish communities, said 104 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the city region between January and June 2022. That represents a decrease of 43 per cent from the 181 incidents reported in the corresponding area and period last year, which was at the time a sickening surge in cases.
Of the 104, 30 incidents happened in Bury with 30 in Salford, 21 in the city of Manchester, five in Stockport and five in the Trafford borough. The CST said of the 73 anti-Semitic incidents classed as assault, five occurred in Salford and four in Bury. Only in the Greater London area were more overall incidents recorded than in Greater Manchester, the figures showed.
Despite the fall, the CST revealed an example of a reported incidents - at a supermarket in Bury in May, two Jewish boys were allegedly accosted by a man who shouted vile abuse at them.
Nationally, the charity recorded 786 anti-Jewish hate incidents from January to June 2022. That's a 43 per cent decrease from the 1,371 anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the first six months of 2021, which itself was the highest half-year total the charity had ever recorded.
The charity said: "Despite the large fall, the total of 786 incidents in the first half of 2022 is nevertheless the joint fifth-highest the CST has ever recorded for the January to June period in any year. The CST has recorded anti-Semitic incidents since 1984."
In Greater Manchester, the boroughs of Bury and Salford are where the largest, most visibly Jewish communities reside.
The report went on: "Within Greater Manchester's data, five of the recorded incidents occurred on property over which the British Transport Police has jurisdiction. An additional five were online incidents where either the victim or offender is known to be based in Manchester, but it was not possible to pinpoint a specific location within the region."
The CST said the fall in incidents followed a 'spike' after violence in Israel and Gaza.
A spokesman said: "This decrease reflects the unprecedented scale of the spike in anti-Jewish hate recorded by the CST in May and June 2021, during and after the escalation in violence in Israel and Gaza in that period. There were smaller temporary spikes in the first six months of 2020, 2019 and 2018.
"In contrast, there was no similar 'trigger event' during the first six months of 2022 to cause a rise in anti-Semitic hate incidents, and the fall in the number of incidents was expected. Instead, the incident profile in the first half of 2022 suggests a return to what counted as normal prior to the pandemic and the recent conflict in Israel."
The report said that due to the lack of Covid-19 restrictions, a fall in a type of incident it said had come to 'characterise' anti-Semitism during the pandemic - so-called 'Zoombombing' - was recorded.
There was only one incident in the first half of the year involving the hijacking of, or intrusion into, online communal events to post or shout anti-Semitic abuse, compared to 13 incidents in the first half of 2021.
But the charity said: "However, the CST recorded 12 incidents in the first six months of 2022 that referenced or were in some way inspired by the war in Ukraine.
"These 12 incidents included conspiracy theories accusing Jewish people of causing or bankrolling the war; attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his Jewish identity; and pro-Russian sentiment expressed in anti-Semitic terms. Although relatively few in number, these incidents reflect the ways in which some anti-Semitic incident perpetrators will shape their anti-Jewish invective to fit with whatever is prominent in wider public discourse."
CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner said: "The January to June total has fallen, but that is of limited comfort, because last year was a record high due to the May 2021 war in the Middle East. Without that conflict or the influence of other factors like the pandemic, these latest figures show that the base level of anti-Jewish hatred remains far too widespread; and may even be worsening amongst younger people."
HM Government’s Independent Adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann, said: "CST's latest incident report highlights why action to tackle antisemitism must remain a priority under out new Prime Minister. Though there has been a welcome drop from the historic high last year, we cannot allow the continued level of anti-Semitic incidents to go unchallenged.
"I will report in the autumn on my review of work in parliament to tackle antisemitism since 2006, which will provide further impetus to tackle anti-Jewish hatred in the UK."
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