U.K. government pledges $34 millon to fight antisemitism as London stabbing victim’s mom recalls horror of attack
The British government has pledged about $34 million to combat what one cabinet member is calling an antisemitism emergency facing the U.K., a day after two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight in north London in an incident being investigated as terrorism.
The announcement, made by State Security Minister Dan Jarvis on Times Radio, came a day after Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed in the heavily Jewish Golders Green area of London. Both were in stable condition but were still being treated for their injuries Thursday.
The new funding from the national government will be spent on additional police patrols and protection around synagogues, community centers and schools, and legislation to put it in place will be “fast-tracked” over the next few weeks, Jarvis said.
“I am treating this as an emergency,” Home Secretary Minister Shabana Mahmood told CBS News partner network BBC News on Thursday.
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Counterterrorism officers with the London Metropolitan Police are investigating Wednesday’s stabbing to determine whether there were any links to a recent string of antisemitic attacks around synagogues and in Jewish areas of the city, including several previous incidents in Golders Green.
The suspect taken into custody in Wednesday’s knife attack, a 45 year-old man, came to the U.K. “lawfully as a child” from Somalia, Mahmood told BBC News on Thursday. She said she couldn’t give further details as the investigation is ongoing.
London police said Thursday that the suspect had previously been referred to the government’s counterextremism program “Prevent,” and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said he had a “history of serious violence and mental health issues.”
The suspect was still in police custody Thursday, and authorities can hold him for up to 96 hours with a judge’s permission before he must be formally charged or released.
“Horrified that these things could happen on the streets of London”
The mother of Rand, the younger victim, told BBC News on Thursday that she was “pretty horrified that these things could happen on the streets of London, in an innocent community where we try our best not to hurt anyone.”
“Shloime was walking on the street minding his own business. I was able to see him yesterday. Thank God, he was conscious the whole time. We hope he will be home before Shabbat,” she said, referring to Jewish day of rest that begins Friday evening.
Golders Green has long been a hub of the British Jewish community, which numbers around 300,000.
The attack came after a series of incidents over the past month in which Jewish communities in north London were targeted, including an arson attack in the same neighborhood that destroyed several ambulances that belonged to the volunteer Jewish medical organization Hatzola.
Stephen Chung / Xinhua via Getty Images 
There were also arson attacks on two synagogues in north London, and suspicious items were found near the Israeli embassy in the British capital.
Most of the incidents – including Wednesday’s stabbings – have been claimed by the little known group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous).
The group, which only emerged a few years ago, claims to have orchestrated a series of recent attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe. A representative of the group told CBS News in March that, “We’ll keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we’ve avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations.”
The government’s independent reviewer of terrorism and state threats legislation, Jonathan Hall, told the BBC News’ “The World Tonight” show on Wednesday that attacks on Jewish people in Britain were “the biggest national security emergency” since 2017.
“There are Brits, in London in particular, Manchester, but probably all around the country, who are now thinking they cannot live a normal life,” he said. “And it’s not one attack, it’s multiple attacks.”
In October 2025, a man drove a car into a group of people outside a synagogue in Manchester on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and then stabbed someone to death.
The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom in 2025, the second-highest total ever reported to the organization.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who represents Britain’s largest Jewish community, said after Wednesday’s attack that it “proves that if you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe — and far more needs to be done.”
