Figures indicating antisemitism is on the rise in York and North Yorkshire are deeply concerning, the region’s policing deputy mayor has said.
Jo Coles said no one should be made to feel unsafe because of their religious or ethnic background after a report found there were 38 antisemitic incidents last year.
The Labour deputy mayor for policing added the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority was setting up a new group bring together different faiths to help tackle hate crimes.
It follows the publication of a report from the Community Safety Trust Jewish charity which recorded 3,700 incidents of antisemitism across the UK last year.
The charity’s report stated the amount was the second-highest reported to it in a calendar year, with 2025’s total up by 4 per cent compared to the previous year.
North Yorkshire’s total of 38 incidents recorded in 2025 was up from 24 in 2024, 22 in 2023 and 15 in 2022.
The 38 incidents recorded in North Yorkshire was the 12th-highest of the 46 UK regions with data in the report, along with Guernsey and Jersey, in 2025.
Last year’s incidents in the UK included the terror attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue during Yom Kippur in October which left two people dead and three seriously injured.
The charity recorded 170 assaults in 2025, down from 202 in 2024, while damage to or descetration of Jewish property rose by 38 per cent to 217 in 2025.
Incidents of the latter included damage to homes, businesses, synagogues, schools and public chanukiahs, the candelabra used during Chanukah.
There were 196 threats recorded in 2025, down from 251 the year before, with abusive behaviour incidents numbering 3,086 last year, up from 2,917 in 2024.
Examples of antisemitic posts shared online featured in the report included references to the holocaust, swastikas, slurs and caricatures drawing on anti-Jewish tropes and stereotypes.
The charity’s analysis found the amount of antisemitic incidents remained significantly higher than before Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza.
More than half, 53 per cent, of last year’s 3,700 incidents were linked to Israel, Palestine, Hamas or the war and also featured anti-Jewish language or motivations.
The proportion in 2025 compares to 15 per cent in 2022, the last year with data unaffected by the events in and following October 2023.
The report stated modern anti-Jewish hate was complex and multi-faceted.
It stated: “Stereotypical tropes about the Jewish people’s power, influence, and money, and claims that the tragedies of the Holocaust are exaggerated or invented, can be especially prevalent in online expressions of antisemitism.
“It is common for two or more of these discourses to exist within the same incident, even if they would seem ideologically incompatible.
“Historic, simplistic prejudices have been manipulated and deployed by such a vast array of social, religious, cultural and political forces over such a long period of time, that a complex and layered landscape of antisemitic language, imagery and references has emerged.”
York and North Yorkshire’s deputy mayor for policing, fire and crime Cllr Coles said her and Mayor David Skaith had agreed that community safety needed to be strengthened.
She added the combined authority was in the process of forming a North Yorkshire interfaith group to bring together community leaders amid efforts to raise awareness of hate crimes.
The deputy mayor said: “I am deeply concerned by the Community Safety Trust’s most recent report, which showed a continued rise in antisemitic hate.
“Hate has no place in York and North Yorkshire, and no one should be made to feel unsafe because of their religion or ethnic background.
“We remain committed to delivering on these agreements and standing firmly with all our faith communities against hatred.”
Hate crimes in North Yorkshire can be reported here.
