‘Visibly Jewish’ people are ‘not safe’ in Britain, chief rabbi says after stabbing attack

“If you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe” in Britain, the country’s chief rabbi said Thursday, expressing the anxiety of the British Jewish community after two men were stabbed in a London neighborhood already reeling from several recent antisemitic attacks.

“I’m sad to say that today’s event proves that if you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe, and far more needs to be done,” Ephraim Mirvis told the BBC.

“Over the past few days, people have been thinking ‘Chas Veshalom’ God forbid — where will the next one be?” he added in a post on X.

In a significant move Thursday, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which is part of the MI5 domestic security agency, raised Britain’s terrorism threat level to “severe” from “substantial.” The new alert level, the country’s second-highest, means an attack is “highly likely in the next six months,” according to the government.

The head of counterterrorism policing said on Thursday that Britain “has been experiencing a gradual terrorist threat for some time.” In a statement, Laurence Taylor noted that the threats have been driven by a rise in both Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorism.”