London: Jewish girl told ‘be patient, Jews come last’ in shop

“Be patient, Jews come last,” a young Jewish girl was told at a Stamford Hill shop. 

A 16-year-old Jewish girl has been told by a shopkeeper in Stamford Hill in North East London, “Be patient, Jews come last.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK anti-Semitism watchdog, reported that the alleged incident took place last Wednesday at a shop which has a drop-off service for parcels, acting as an agent for online shops.

The Jewish schoolgirl was dropping off items, but in the middle of serving her the female shopkeeper stopped and started serving another customer.

The Jewish schoolgirl asked politely if she could just have her receipt so that she could leave, to which the shopkeeper allegedly replied: “Be patient, Jews come last.”

Stamford Hill Shomrim, the volunteer neighborhood watch patrol, assisted the young girl who was shocked and felt very hurt by the anti-Semitic comment.

Stamford Hill Shomrim has reported the incident to the police and referred the case to CAA for assistance.

Stamford Hill is home to a large Jewish population, and periodically experiences anti-Semitic incidents.

The UK’s Jewish community experienced a surge in anti-Semitic attacks in the past year. A report published by the Community Security Trust (CST) on anti-Semitic occurrences in the UK in 2016 shows an alarming record number of hate incidents.

In the report, published in February, CST recorded 1,309 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide during 2016, a 36-percent increase from the 960 recorded in 2015.

One-third of British Jews has become fearful of mounting anti-Semitic crime and the failure to remove anti-Semites from politics. Many have been considering leaving Britain altogether within the past two years, according to data published by the CAA in August.

A survey of 2,025 British Jews shows that only 59 percent feel welcome in the UK; 17 percent feel unwelcome. Over the past two years, 37 percent of British Jews have concealed any Jewish symbols in public.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News