Police treat Golders Green assault on Jewish man as hate crime

Police treated a dawn assault in Golders Green as an antisemitic hate crime after a Jewish man in his 20s was beaten by several men and taken to hospital with injuries to his face and back.

The Metropolitan Police said officers arrived within six minutes of being called. No arrests had been made by Monday night. The victim was identified by the Jewish Chronicle as 22-year-old Israeli Shalev Ben Yakar.

According to reporting cited by the Jerusalem Post, Ben Yakar said he had stepped outside his apartment late at night to talk to friends from South America without waking his roommates. He said the attack began when a group of five or six men heard him speaking Hebrew. The men chased him while shouting in Arabic, dragged him across the road, tore his clothes and beat him until he nearly lost consciousness. Pictures of the victim showed wounds across his forehead, nose and cheeks, along with bruising on his back and face.

The Jewish Leadership Council called it “yet another appalling attack in the heart of the Jewish community in Golders Green” and urged a robust response from law enforcement. The Community Security Trust said it was supporting the victim and his family.

The assault added fresh pressure on police and political leaders already facing criticism over the safety of Jewish neighborhoods in north London. On April 29, two Jewish men aged 76 and 34 were stabbed and seriously wounded in Golders Green in what police later declared a terrorist incident. Officers said they were investigating whether the Jewish community had been deliberately targeted. That case prompted strong reactions from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, as well as increased police patrols and protests in the area.

The latest violence also fit a wider pattern that community groups have been warning about for months. Reports from northwest London described an attempted arson attack on a memorial wall and the burning of four Jewish community ambulances in late March. In Golders Green, where synagogues, community services and Jewish businesses sit close together, those incidents have deepened concern that official protection is lagging behind the threat.

The question now is not only whether the latest assault will lead to arrests, but whether the pattern of attacks in Golders Green will force a more sustained policing response, faster prosecutions and clearer public backing for Jewish residents who say they are being repeatedly singled out.