WIREDGOV

The Home Office has announced it will continue to grant the Community Security Trust £14 million to help keep members of the Jewish community safe.

The Home Office yesterday (12 April) announced that it will continue to grant the Community Security Trust (CST) £14 million to help keep members of the Jewish community safe in their daily lives.

The Home Office has been supporting the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors and helps protect British Jews against antisemitism, since 2015 following a series of terror attacks against Jewish targets across Europe.

The grant announced yesterday will cover protective security for the next financial year at Jewish institutions, including synagogues and schools.

The Community Security Trust’s work to identify and report antisemitic crimes forms part of the government’s work in tackling antisemitism in the UK. In 2021, the CST recorded 2,255 anti-Jewish hate incidents nationwide, the highest annual total ever recorded.

Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday said:

Antisemitic incidents are not just an attack on the Jewish community, but on everyone who believes in a free and open society – and won’t be tolerated in this country.

This funding will continue to help Jewish people practise their religion and way of life without fear of attack or persecution and I am grateful for the work that the Community Security Trust do in building and strengthening relations between British Jews and the rest of society.

British Jews, like all communities, must be able to live their lives without fear of verbal or physical attack. Only by working together can we ensure that hateful behaviour like antisemitism can be fully eliminated from our society.

Community Security Trust Chief Executive Mark Gardner yesterday said:

The grant will be welcomed by Britain’s Jewish communities, coming after record levels of antisemitism and a continuing threat of terrorism against Jews. As in previous years, CST will do everything we can to ensure the best use of the money, including the quality of the guarding provided.

The UK has a robust legislative framework to tackle hate crime and offenders will face the full force of the law, with over 10,000 cases prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in the last year.