London police searching for man who ripped mezuzahs off doors of Jewish homes

The culprit was caught on camera with his face clearly showing as he calmly vandalized a home in broad daylight. 

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

London police are searching for a man who pried mezuzahs off doors of at least two Jewish homes in a religious neighborhood on Monday.

Shomrim of North West London, a Jewish security group, posted footage on X from a security camera that showed a tall, white male with a large backpack and dressed in a black hoodie and shorts openly approach a front door at 10:15 a.m.

He can be seen unfolding a pocket knife and calmly and quietly levering off the small box containing biblical verses that traditionally adorns the houses of Jews as a sign of their faith.

The cleanshaven, gray-haired individual then turns around and walks away, mezuzah in hand.

Asking for any other victims to come forward, Shomrim wrote, “We have received multiple reports of incidents that appear to be deliberate acts of #antisemitism, involving the removal of mezuzah’s in #GoldersGreen. We are liaising with police.”

A spokesperson for the organization told The Jewish Chronicle, “The religious Jewish community have traditionally borne a lot of the brunt of antisemitic attacks because they are most visibly Jewish. This has a profound impact on our quality of life.”

Since the man was caught on camera, “he must be identified,” the spokesperson continued, urging anyone with information “to come forward.”

The group said it had given the authorities CCTV footage from the vandalized homes and the immediate area in order to help catch the culprit.

Shomrim runs patrols of neighborhoods with a large concentration of Jews and works closely with the local police, reporting and then supporting victims of antisemitic crime.

The Metropolitan Police acknowledged that they were “working to identify the man” and asked for “anyone with any information” to contact them.

They also noted that “officers will be carrying out patrols in the area following these concerning reports, and members of the public are encouraged to report any issues to officers.”

While the shirt that the man wore had the name of a company called Abbey Road Studios, the business quickly denied that the criminal was an employee, adding that “Abbey Road denounces hate of all kinds.”

This was the second time in two months that mezuzahs were taken off Jewish establishments in northern London.

In March, a vandal wearing a hooded jacket and face mask ripped off the religious item from a kosher restaurant and a synagogue.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2024, the second-worst year since recording began.

These incidents included 201 physical assaults, 157 instances of damage to Jewish property, and 250 direct threats.

The worst year by far (4,296 incidents) was 2023, when Hamas sparked the ongoing war with Israel on October 7, leading to a massive jump in anti-Israel and antisemitic activity around the world.