On Monday morning, London woke to the news that four ambulances belonging to a Jewish organization had been firebombed. In an attack that police are treating as a hate crime, a group of men can be seen on security cameras, breaking into the vehicles and setting them ablaze. An Islamist group claimed credit. The incident was quickly condemned, but British Jews were once again reminded of the world in which they now live.
Hatzolah is a Jewish charity operating in cities around the globe—they fundraise for ambulances and medical equipment to serve the communities in which they’re based, helping Jews and non-Jews alike. They are remarkably popular. And now, in London, they find themselves on the front lines of a war against Britain’s Jews.
Though firebombing and ambulance-attacking are a somewhat novel addition to the voluminous playbook of antisemitic crime in Britain, nobody here is really that surprised. We weren’t after two people were killed in a synagogue in Manchester last Yom Kippur either. Devastated, yes, heartbroken too—but not surprised.
